What it means
A way of making care decisions that uses three things together: the best current research, the knowledge and skill of the nurse and the team, and what the client values and prefers. It replaces doing things "the way we always have" with doing what has been shown to work.
For the nurse
Hospital policies and procedures are usually built on evidence; nurses follow them and can question a practice that research no longer supports.
At a glance
| Abbreviations | EBP |
|---|---|
| Also written | evidence-based practices, EBP |
Related terms
nursing process
The step-by-step method nurses use to plan and give care: assess, diagnose, plan, implement and evaluate.
clinical judgment
The way a nurse notices, makes sense of and acts on information about a client to decide on the best care.