One of the major essential components of professional nursing practice in the 21 century is implementing evidence-based practice and care. The evidence-based practice integrates the best evidence available in current research, professional expertise, and patient preferences and input. The term evidence-based practice is associated with Florence Nightingale, the nursing professional who first began using statistics and data to determine the nature of patients’ infections in the 1800s cholera pandemic (Nease, 2021). Thus, Nightingale was one of the first professionals who acknowledged the importance of empirical knowledge in nursing.
However, the term evidence-based practice received more attention after a 1999 report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) was released. The report suggested that a substantial number of patients die because of medical errors which could have been corrected. In addition, the report explained how medical errors negatively influence the cost of health services for hospitals. A follow-up report from IOM released in 2001 titled Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st century outlined primary principles that addressed the issue of medical errors in the healthcare system. The fifth rule of the ten developed principles requires the decision-making process in health care to be evidence-based. Therefore, the 2001 report served as a source of widespread implementation of evidence-based practice in nursing and the transformation of the healthcare system.
I chose the event because it marks the beginning of the extensive implementation of evidence-based practice and care in nursing. Furthermore, because healthcare providers struggled with the fast implementation of IOM’s recommendations, several nursing models were introduced to accelerate EBP development in nursing. For example, the Iowa model, Stetler model, ARCC, and Clinical Scholar mentorship models all utilize evidence-based practice. Thus, the 2001 report from IOM can be acknowledged as one of the events in the 21st century that significantly impacted the healthcare system and determined the direction of integration of research evidence in nursing.
Reference
Nease, B. (2021). What would Florence do?Nursing Management, 52(7), 14-18. Web.