Being knowledgeable about evidence-based practice is necessary to healthcare

professionals especially nurses. Evidence-based practice is a clinical approach where decisions

about the patient’s care is based on strong evidences from well-designed studies, integrating it
with the patient’s values and preferences; or even from clinician’s expertise. Utilization of
evidence-based practice helps the health care professional in their decisions that can potentially
yield better health outcomes. In this paper, application of evidence-based practice in clinical
setting is emphasized which are heavily based on evidences gathered.
Application of evidence-based medicine follows the usual scientific research process. To
cite, a patient with lung cancer underwent initial examination (i.e. physical exam, history taking)
before being diagnosed and then eventually resort to treatment. Through gathering of evidences
from journals and articles, nurses can logically narrow down the diagnosis and finally implement
the best intervention for the patient. Diagnosis becomes faster when up-to-date journals are
checked whether which screening has higher specificity/sensitivity that would confirm the
disease. In a study by Detterbeck et al. (2013), screening for lung cancer using low-dose CT scan
is associated with a significant reduction in the number of lung cancer deaths. This signifies that
using the modality best characterizes the lesion which in turn serves as the initial step towards
the right decision to which interventions best fit the patient’s condition or disease. As a nurse, the
knowledge regarding the disease is important in order to explain it properly to the patient and/or
the patient’s family. A patient might claim that he/she is an occasional smoker and would not
believe the diagnosis so it is important to discuss that cigarette smoking along with other risk
factors such as having HIV and being chronically exposed to air pollution could possibly
contribute to acquiring such disease (Alberg et al., 2013). For the treatment of the disease, newer
discoveries such as angiogenesis inhibitors and other molecular therapies are available that are
effective theoretically, but not yet clinically proven (Johnson et al., 2014) although, clinically
proven combined therapies exist such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy. It is important to
integrate the treatment options with the patient and the family, as well as discuss the benefits and
risks.
Nurses, in their daily practices, encounter problems from patients that require effective
clinical decision-making for appropriate intervention. To address this, nurses should practice
evidence-based medicine that can potentially yield better health outcomes.

References:
 Alberg, A. J., Brock, M. V., Ford, J. G., Samet, J. M., & Spivack, S. D. (2013).
Epidemiology of lung cancer: Diagnosis and management of lung cancer: American
College of Chest Physicians evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. Chest, 143(5),
e1S-e29S.
 Detterbeck, F. C., Mazzone, P. J., Naidich, D. P., & Bach, P. B. (2013). Screening for
lung cancer: diagnosis and management of lung cancer: American College of Chest
Physicians evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. Chest, 143(5), e78S-e92S.
 Johnson, D. H., Schiller, J. H., & Bunn, J. P. (2014). Recent clinical advances in lung
cancer management. Journal of clinical oncology: official journal of the American
Society of Clinical Oncology, 32(10), 973-982.