Research Paper On Healthcare Research’s Impact On Evidence Based Practice

Importance of Healthcare Resources

Importance of Healthcare Resources

Introduction

Research refers to a systematic, purposeful, and intentional examination and exploration into existing materials and sources in order to establish facts, create new knowledge, and reach conclusions (Polit & Beck, 2008). To undertake a research, it requires a strong basis, which starts by establishing a knowledge gap towards a particular topic and seeks to fill that gap with facts. Research is supported by facts, theories, and hypotheses that help make new interpretations to existing information or knowledge. Research plays a critical role in the healthcare industry. This paper will discuss the importance of healthcare research to current times, including my views as to why research is vital to evidence-based practice.

Importance of Healthcare Research

According to Sarcevic, Paul, Hilligoss & Scupelli (2011), research plays various roles in healthcare, including development of solutions that unravel the various problems that challenge the healthcare system. Researchers establish a problem, utilize existing knowledge, theories, and facts, and apply the gained new knowledge to creation of a solution to an identified problem. The new treatments and practices, as well as prevention methods used in the healthcare industry wouldn’t be possible without research. The new innovations in healthcare have further helped increase the lifespan of populations through disease prevention, decrease disabilities caused by diseases, and have continued to improve the quality of life of people living with medical conditions (Lascurain-Sánchez, et. al, 2012). In the past, the healthcare industry was considered to be an institution for care provision and treatment of diseases. As such, medications and practices were based on doctors’ best guesses, which would turn out to be wrong in most cases. Medical errors which resulted to disability and fatalities in patients resulted to the invention of research (Sarcevic, Paul, Hilligoss & Scupelli, 2011). The medications in use today require vigorous testing, called clinical trials, before they are released to the market.
Research also helps in the development of standards and guideline that govern the various medical practices (CCR, 2012). Training and education to healthcare professionals is variable across the different institutions. If there were no standardized frameworks to govern healthcare practices in education, then we would have medical practitioners with different ways of practice. However, research in healthcare compares all the methods that are available, collects information on adverse effects and benefits of each method, and provides the best. Educational institutions then adopt such methods that have been proven through research to be best practices. In addition, most of the laws and regulations in healthcare are as a result of research (Lascurain-Sánchez, et. al, 2008). When research is done, its results can indicate a need for change in practice. For such a change to be implemented, legislations must be created and enforced. New regulations and standards that are supported by extensive research gain more support compared to those that do not have a foundation on research.
The public directly benefits from healthcare researches in that it contributes to the development of new and better practices, or improvement of existing practices. The public can, therefore, be assured of best practices, safety, and quality of treatments (CCR, 2012). As a result of research, people are now enjoying longer quality lives, and fewer disabilities which were as a result of lack of research in the past. Consequently, research has led to improvement of economies due to the above mentioned benefits to the society, hence an improvement in the living standards of people. Research also saves the healthcare industry resources and funds associated with treating and managing diseases and medical errors. According to CCR (2012), the national spending on treating the results of medical errors amounts to millions of dollars. Research leads to development of best practices, hence a reduction in medical errors, and consequently, on the associated costs.

According to Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt (2011), evidence based research, EBP, is the explicit and conscientious use of current research integrated with patient values and clinical expertise to make decisions regarding patients. Research, patient opinions, and the clinical expertise serve as evidence while making critical medical decisions on patients. Research is one aspect of healthcare, while putting it into practice is another. According to Polit & Beck (2008), for the research carried out on healthcare issues to be effective, it must be translated into practice. There are various ways of adopting the results of research into practice, including implementation of regulations and policies. Healthcare research has a vital impact on evidence based practice in that it contributes to the evidence. According to Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt (2011), evidence based practice is based on patient opinions, research, and clinical expertise’s points of view towards medical practices. Therefore, evidence based practice would not be considered complete without the input of healthcare research. However, research must be conducted using sound methodologies in order for it to be considered as evidence for evidence based practice.

Conclusion

In conclusion, research is a critical component of healthcare because it provides avenue for the development of new best practices. Additionally, it contributes to the enactment of laws and policies that endeavor to improve the quality and safety of patients based on research. This paper addressed the importance of research to healthcare, as well as its impact on evidence based research. The paper established that research is a critical component in evidence based research since evidence depends on the research, patient opinions, and clinical expertise.

References

Community Connect to Research, CCR. (2012). Why is Health Research Important? Harvard
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Lascurain-Sánchez, et. al. (2008). Impact of Health Science Research on the Spanish Health
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Melnyk, B. M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (Eds.). (2011). Evidence-based Practice in Nursing &
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Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2008). Nursing Research: Generating and Assessing Evidence for
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Sarcevic, A., Paul, S. A., Hilligoss, B., & Scupelli, P. G. (2011). Assessing the Practical
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