Introduction
Evidence-based practice in health care systems has changed care for patients and general practice. Healthcare system practice guidelines are suggestions for doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers about how to care for patients and what conditions or procedures they should follow (Djulbegovic & Guyatt, 2019). Pressure injuries can be avoided and treated if healthcare provides collaborate, a positive company culture is created, and safe operational methods are followed. As shown in the guideline, risk assessment is an important aspect of the therapeutic practice (The Joint Commission, 2022). Some management interventions include identifying a person’s dietary needs, repositioning, and taking care of their skin. Therefore, evidence-based practice in practice is improved when providers use evidence to support decision-making.
An Overview of a Healthcare System Practice Guideline
Healthcare system guidelines are the foundation for making healthcare better. They include recommendations and steps that should be taken in certain clinical situations (Djulbegovic & Guyatt, 2019). For example, one of the guidelines used at my workplace is the prevention of pressure injuries. The guideline outlines suggested steps intended to help doctors and patients decide how to handle their health. The first part of the suggestions explained pressure injuries and what they meant. These rules aim to help avoid pressure injuries and enable people understand that good health may be hard to achieve (The Joint Commission, 2022). As a result, the guidelines improve a patient’s normal functions, such as their physical and mental health.
The pressure injuries practice guideline explains how the condition develops through a staging system. The injuries are staged to show the degree of tissue damage. The first stage is pressure injury, non-blanchable erythema of intact skin (The Joint Commission, 2022). Before visual changes, there may be erythema that can be wiped off or changes in feeling, temperature, or firmness. The second stage is the partial-thickness loss of skin with exposed dermis. The third stage is full-thickness skin loss, which can be perceived as skin ulcer and usually accompanied to the granulation of tissue (The Joint Commission, 2022). The fourth stage is the loss of skin and tissue with visible fascia, muscle, and cartilage in the ulcer. Thus, the guideline about pressure injury provide offer information that enables healthcare providers and patients to understand the different stages of pressure injuries.
Pressure injuries can be prevented and treated if people from different fields work together, have a good organizational culture, and use safe operational practices. According to the International Guideline, risk assessment is an important part of clinical practice (The Joint Commission, 2022). The other aspects that can help a person heal include identifying their nutritional needs, repositioning and moving around early, taking care of their skin, using support surfaces, and cleaning. Additionally, some interventions involve determining the extent of the pain and how to treat it, getting emotional and spiritual support, and getting help from their family (The Joint Commission, 2022). As a result, healthcare providers can use this information to guide patients on appropriate approaches to managing pressure injuries.
How Different Professions Are Held to This Guideline
Nurses
The role of nurses in the healthcare system has increased, and most decisions about a patient’s care now include nurses’ opinions. Based on this, it is important for nurses, as any other healthcare provider, to understand and use EBP when making clinical decisions about a patient (Jeffries, 2022). For example, the guidelines provide the strategies that healthcare providers can use to ensure effective pressure injury management. This demonstrates that nurses should ensure that patients are comfortable and those at risk of developing injuries have a repositioning chart in place. Furthermore, they should educate patients, families, and carers about the importance of repositioning. In addition, the guidelines inform nurses of the need to assess patients’ hydration and nutritional status.
Nurses are expected to give care based on scientific evidence and are held professionally responsible for their work. The guideline defines the roles of nurses in preventing and managing pressure injuries. Care for pressure areas is an important part of being a nurse (Jeffries, 2022). Most pressure ulcers can be prevented, and nurses should make sure that all the right steps are taken to reduce harm and risk factors and stop them from happening whenever possible. The skin should be looked at regularly, and a full reassessment should be done if the patient’s clinical status, mobility, or underlying conditions have changed (The Joint Commission, 2022). Nutritional status should be checked constantly, and extra nutritional support should be given if needed. As a result, nurses are supposed to use the guideline to provide quality care to patients.
Nurse Educators
The Healthcare system practice guidelines are integral to nurse educators because it helps them make evidence-based decisions. Nurse educators make, evaluate, update, and implement new and existing nursing education programs (Jeffries, 2022). These educators help the students on their way to becoming successful licensed registered nurses by acting as both advisors and role models. Based on this, the pressure injuries guidelines enable educators to identify important areas for prevention and management. For example, they should ensure that learners understand the role of repositioning and nutrition in managing pressure injuries. They should use this knowledge to improve their curriculum and program to equip nursing students with the appropriate skills.
Pharmacists
Practicing pharmacists must make evidence-based decisions when undertaking their role in the setting. The health care guideline encourages pharmacists to use evidence to support their operations. They are expected to care more about their patients than the products they sell, which brings many changes to the lives of their patients (Jeffries, 2022). There is much evidence that counseling makes patients more likely to follow instructions and improves their quality of life. Based on this, the guidelines give pharmacists the information to effectively advise patients on what to do when managing pressure injuries (The Joint Commission, 2022).
They must ensure that the prescription decisions are aligned with the recommendations provided in the guideline for effective care to be realized. Therefore, as one of the most important providers in healthcare, pharmacists must be able to make informed healthcare decisions.
CFO
Chief Financial Officers (CFO) are in charge of the organization’s finances, affecting every department, employee, and patient. This means they are responsible for internal and external financial reporting, taking care of a company’s assets, and managing cash (Jeffries, 2022). The role is becoming more focused on the future and growing to include strategy and business partnerships. The information from the guideline indicates that CFO must ensure that all the tools required to effectively manage pressure injuries are in the facility (The Joint Commission, 2022). For example, valid tools are required to assess the patient’s risk for nutrition and help in mobility. With this information, CFO is supposed to make evidence-based financial decisions to procure important tools for the setting.
Technician
Healthcare technicians are among the providers whose roles are influenced by pressure injury guidelines. They are responsible for performing tasks such as taking vital signs from patients, giving bedside care, and moving patients to and from their beds (Jeffries, 2022). In addition, a technician is required to have a solid understanding of medical terminology and the ability to perform fundamental clinical procedures. They must refer to the guideline to effectively perform their roles such as assessing pressure points, temperature, and the skin beneath medical devices. As a result, technicians are expected to use the information in the guideline to make an evidence-based decision when assessing a patient’s health condition and status.
Psychologists
Health psychologists are among healthcare providers who must make use of the information provided in the guideline to make appropriate decisions. Mental and spiritual support have been outlined in the guideline as some interventions for the effective management of pressure injuries (Jeffries, 2022). As the science of behavior, psychology has much to offer regarding improving health promotion and preventing disease. A health care team psychologist can help patients at risk of getting pressure injuries to change their behavior. They must use the information from the guideline to provide evidence-based counseling services to ensure patients understand and adopt the appropriate interventions to enhance their health (The Joint Commission, 2022). Therefore, a psychologist must work with other providers to ensure that pressure injuries are effectively managed.
References Used by the System to Adopt the Guideline
Different sources supported the healthcare system practice guideline to enhance its credibility and reliability. The first source of information was European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (EPUAP), National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel (NPIAP), and Pan Pacific Pressure Injury Alliance (PPPIA) (The Joint Commission, 2022). They provided clinical guidance on the prevention and treatment of pressure injuries. The second reference is Reddy and other authors’ Journal of the American Medical Association. The guideline was adopted using the information about the treatment of pressure injuries from this source (The Joint Commission, 2022). The third resource was Cooper KL (2013) on the evidence-based prevention of pressure ulcers in the intensive care unit. Thus, the references helped support the information on the guideline.
The guideline included citations from National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel (NPIAP), Lyder CH and Ayello EA (2016), Mayo Clinic, and the Joint Commission. The information from NPIAP was used to support insights about different pressure injury stages that healthcare providers should consider during care (The Joint Commission, 2022). Mayo Clinic was employed to describe pressure injuries, especially concerning bedsores. In addition, the information from Lyder CH and Ayello EA was focused on patient safety issues while managing pressure injuries. The source was used to support the safety concerns outlined in the guideline. Finally, the Joint Commission’s information helped me understand the management of medical-device pressure-based injuries (The Joint Commission, 2022). Therefore, the information on the guideline was effectively supported by different sources.
The Evidence Used to Define the Guideline
The EBP applied in the guideline for the prevention of pressure injuries is the research evidence. The first evidence used to define the guideline is secondary data. This is information that has been gathered from primary sources and researchers can use in their work. The evidence that goes into the creation of healthcare guidelines includes published literature and computerized databases (White et al., 2019). The second evidence used to describe the guideline is primary resources. This is a first-hand information that is closely related to the subject being examined. Therefore, evidence was used in the guideline to enhance its credibility and reliability.
Evidence from National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel (NPIAP), Lyder CH and Ayello EA (2016), the Mayo Clinic, and the Joint Commission were used to define the guideline. The data from NPIAP was used to help understand the different stages of pressure injuries that healthcare providers should consider when giving care. People used the name of the Mayo Clinic to talk about pressure injuries, especially bedsores. In addition, Lyder CH and Ayello EA’s information was mostly about how to keep patients safe while treating pressure injuries. The source was used to back up the guideline’s safety concerns. Lastly, the data from the Joint Commission helps healthcare providers understand how to treat injuries caused by pressure from medical devices.
The Level of Evidence Used in The EBP Identified
The evidence-based practices identified in this case is the management of pressure injuries. There are different levels of evidence used to ensure that the practice is performed effectively. Level I, such as systematic reviews, were used in the guideline. A good example of evidence at this level is Reddy et al. (2008). Level IV is obtained from well-designed cohort studies to support information. Cooper (2013) is among the evidence used in the guideline that belongs to the level. Level VII evidence uses opinions from authorities and reports from professional committees (Winona State University, n.d).
For example, the guideline about pressure injuries employed evidence from the Mayo Clinic, NPIAP, and the Joint Commission. The information from these experts is believed to be factual because they are well researched. The evidence they were given came from scientific research and was classified as either strong or weak.
How Well Do Health Professionals Follow the Guideline
The majority of healthcare professionals in the system use this guideline as the standard way to prevent and manage pressure injuries. Healthcare providers use evidence-based practice to ensure their information and guidelines are always up-to-date. Physicians and other healthcare workers look at scientific databases to find the most recent research, which they use to make decisions about patient care. In addition, this method has improved patient care because it considers the patient’s preferences and the type of treatment plan. In this case, it provides important interventions that can be used to effectively manage pressure injuries and advise patients and their families on prevention measures. Therefore, evidence-based practice has made a big difference in the quality of care given to patients in healthcare systems.
Conclusion
The guideline on preventing pressure injuries use research evidence to provide support the information provided. It offers information about pressure injuries that health providers can use to make informed decisions. For example, the information in the recommendation in the guideline was derived from various pieces of scientific research as well as systematic reviews that were carried out with the assistance of scientific databases. It ensures that healthcare practitioners practice care that is supported by evidence, which promotes the quality of services delivered to patients and the results for those patients. For instance, nurses operating in the setting consult the information to determine how to provide the most effective care for patients who are having pressure injuries.
References
Djulbegovic, B., & Guyatt, G. (2019). Evidence vs. consensus in clinical practice guidelines. Jama, 322(8), 725-726. Web.
Jeffries, P. (2022). Clinical simulations in nursing education: Advanced concepts, trends, and opportunities. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
The Joint Commission. (2022). Quick Safety 25: Preventing pressure injuries. Web.
White, K. M., Dudley-Brown, S., & Terhaar, M. F. (Eds.). (2019). Translation of evidence into nursing and healthcare. Springer Publishing Company.
Winona State University (n.d). Evidence-Based Practice Toolkit: Levels of Evidence. Web.