Introduction
Every medical facility requires specific practices and strategies to identify the most relevant and efficient treatment methods and healthcare services. In particular, various illnesses that require in-depth research should be addressed in nursing practice. Notably, a significant number of people in the United States who have survived cancer give thorough consideration to possible practical solutions and strategies that can help patients combat this disease.
This paper will explore the case of the Sunshine Comprehensive Cancer Center, which opened a cancer survivorship clinic. Primary attention will be paid to nurses’ skills and knowledge in implementing evidence-based practices (EBP) to improve the development of cancer survivorship care plans for patients. The paper’s purpose is to define the peculiarities of EBP for all nurses and, specifically, advanced practice nurses, and to integrate these data into the case. Although all practicing nurses should be involved in implementing EBP and its incorporation, advanced practice nurses will have the primary role in this process.
EBP and Nurses Competencies
Evidence-based practices for all practicing nurses assume direct commitment to all phases of the studies and research that will form the practice base. For example, nurses should be involved in data collection to ensure a sufficient theoretical basis. Next, all nurses need to assess the information and align it with their own knowledge and experiences.
Further, nurses should evaluate outcomes and make changes regarding the cancer care plan (Xu et al., 2020). On the other hand, advanced practice nurses have broader competencies while establishing administrative and educational approaches. In this case, advanced practice nurses act as mentors due to their profound knowledge and skills.
Competencies and the Team
Creating a cancer care plan for the Sunshine Comprehensive Cancer Center requires thorough consideration of current practices and evidence. Therefore, the competencies of all nurses, including information gathering and assessment, will be crucial to the team. Moreover, advanced practice nurses, as mentors, will also have essential duties within the current team, serving as leaders who will inspire others and share their experiences. According to Cook et al. (2019), “evidence-based reviews are a trustworthy approach for identifying generally effective instructional practices” (p. 1). In addition, educational methods will help the team communicate with patients to obtain vital information about their health status and improvement outcomes.
Model For Improvement and the Team’s Plan
As part of the team’s Model for Improvement, it will be helpful to implement the PICO tool to address the quality improvement component. This practice allows the nurses to promptly collect specific information regarding potential improvements in the evidence-practice sphere. As Brown (2020) states, “as more disciplines continue to emphasize evidence-based practice, tools such as the PubMed PICO tool can assist health educators in the literature review and evidence-gathering process” (p. 3). Therefore, while constructing the team’s plan, it is vital to mention this issue.
Team’s Plan Outline as a Model for Improvement Framework
What will be accomplished:
- Distribute the roles within the nurse collective to create a solid understanding of each nurse’s duties, responsibilities, and goals.
- Provide advanced practicing nurses with educative and communicative responsibilities to act as leaders in the healthcare facility.
- Establish a theoretical department of the cancer care plan with the implementation of the PubMed PICO tool to gather and process the current evidence-based practices.
- Create an organized practice opportunity for all nurses based on the obtained results from theoretical studies and material research.
- The implementation was created and obtained during the above-mentioned steps of the cancer care system in the healthcare organization.
Measures to Assess the Progress
As the primary indicator of the progress of the provided EBP improvements, it will be essential to monitor changes in the number of patients who survive cancer.
Further Changes
As further improvements, it will be crucial to implement flexible solutions that allow nurses to adapt to specific changes arising from both internal and external challenges in medical facilities.
Leadership and Management
However, there is a specific difference between leaders and managers in the construction of high-quality, efficient organizational work. In particular, the manager’s role is to control the established workflow and ensure that all requirements are followed. It is vital to stress that managers have structured jobs that require constant and well-established actions. On the other hand, leadership requires a much broader strategy that encompasses aspects such as inspiration, guidance, education, and the administration of the entire working climate (Xu et al., 2020). The leader needs to provide their worker with the opportunity to understand their roles and duties and contribute to the company’s short- and long-term strategies.
Sustaining an EBP Culture
While considering the management’s role in sustaining an EBP culture, it is essential to consider the roles that both standard and advanced practice nurses can play. On the one hand, nurses’ actions can be defined as management skills crucial to any organization. In this case, to establish an EBP culture, nurses in management roles can perform functions such as communication and education. It means that all nurses should promote the initiatives established by advanced practice nurses from the outset.
Each nurse, as a manager, should be aware of their role in constructing an efficient cancer treatment plan (Xu et al., 2020). Consequently, management has a vital role in establishing and supporting an EBP culture by fostering and sharing innovations and practices across all healthcare providers. Moreover, it is responsible for ensuring alignment between progress and the entire company’s goals.
On the other hand, advanced practicing nurses can be leaders due to their profound work experience and knowledge. Remarkably, they can serve as educators for other practicing nurses in the healthcare facility, sharing their knowledge and helping the organization make its cancer care plans more effective. According to Munirah et al. (2020), “nursing administrators and educators have the main role to facilitate evidence-based practice implementation among nurses” (p. 1). Therefore, the role of the leadership in sustaining an EBP culture is to create opportunities for educational, inspirational, and practice-based solutions and activities for all nurses.
Conclusion
While summarizing the paper, it is vital to emphasize that basic and advanced practice nurses are essential to the team implementing specific changes. Because developing a cancer care plan requires thorough research, EBP will be vital to the organization. Consequently, all nurses, as managers, can promote communication techniques, and advanced nurses, as leaders, can help inspire and educate the team. In the collected academic scholar articles, these points were included as necessary for EBP construction and implementation. In addition, all articles stress close collaboration among nurses across all aspects of their work, including communication, education, and patient care.
References
Brown, D. (2020). A review of the PubMed PICO tool: Using evidence-based practice in health education. Health Promotion Practice, 21(4), 496-498.
Cook, B., Collins, L., Cook, S., & Cook, L. (2019). Evidence-based reviews: How Evidence-based practices are systematically identified. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 35(1), 6-13.
Munirah, A., Eman, A., Fatimah, A., Kawakeb, A., Rehab, R., Sara, A., & Maram, B. (2020). Barriers of implementing evidence-based practice in nursing profession: A Literature review. American Journal of Nursing Science, 9(1), 35-42.
Xu, G., Yang, Y., Du, Y. et al. (2020). Clinical Pathway for Early Diagnosis of COVID-19: Updates from Experience to Evidence-Based Practice. Clinical Reviews in Allergy& Immunology, 59, 89–100.
