Due to the dynamic nature of health sector, Evidence Based Practice (EBP) is really helpful in improving the quality of services given to the patients. EBP has been shown to reduce healthcare costs, improve population’s health, patient’s experience and work life of healthcare providers (Sikka et al., 2015). This ultimately leads to quality healthcare services to the patients.
American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology (AANA) is the website I paid key interest in whether this organization supports EBP or not in its core mandate. AANA is an organization that was founded in the year 1931. It represents about 59,000 Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) and student registered nurse anesthetists nationwide. Its key role is to ensure standard education is offered to all members as well as ensure that its members’ practice follows set guidelines.
Through my intense scrutiny on the organization, I found out that its work is grounded on Evidence Based Practice. A number of areas in the organization clearly indicate its commitment to utilize EBP. These areas include but not limited to, organization’s mission, vision, core values and members’ practice.For instance, AANA on chronic pain management utilizes EBP to come up with its guidelines. Chronic pain management guidelines are intended to promote high quality care to the patients. Through EBP the organization has been able to utilize findings of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) to revise its definition of pain. This has enabled healthcare providers discover that pain is a multidimensional, complex experience.
More so, this EBP has been able to inform proper guidelines to be followed in pain management which eventually helps reduce healthcare costs among patients. This also saves government money lost due to healthcare expenses in management of chronic pain.
Through EBP, untreated chronic pain has been shown to affect individuals negatively and limit their functionality. It also leads to depression, anxiety and reduce quality of life. Research has shown a link to exist between chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). AANA has been able to utilize these findings to establish guidelines on pain management hence lead to good outcome among patients as well as improve their experience which is part of the Quadruple Aim.
In conclusion, this information has provided me with great insight of the importance of EBP in my practice. Being one of the key players in healthcare, I believe I should be part of the team to support EBP. This has challenged me to get out of being conservative and embrace change through supporting evidence based practice that helps me serve my patients better. As I climb up the ladder in my profession, I look forward to being part of AANA to help improve patients’ experience, improve population’s health and lower healthcare costs by utilizing evidence based practice.
References
American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology (AANA). Aana.com. Available at: https://www.aana.com/about-us/who-we-are (Accessed: November 27, 2022).
Available at: https://doi.org/10.1097/10.1097/01.naj.0000395243.14347.7e.
(no date) Aana.com. Available at: https://www.aana.com/practice/practice-management/pain-management (Accessed: November 27, 2022).
Sikka, R., Morath, J.M. and Leape, L. (2015) “The quadruple aim: Care, health, cost and meaning in work,” BMJ Quality & Safety, 24(10), pp. 608–610. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2015-004160.
