Family nurse practitioner student perception of journal abstract usefulness in clinical decision making: A randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Research abstracts at point of care may be valuable to FNPs if easily accessible and integrated into clinical workflow.

Clinicians’ perceptions of usefulness of the PubMed4Hh mobile device application for clinical decision making at the point of care: a pilot study

“…Other studies found that clinicians who use evidence-based guidelines to make treatment decisions and care plans were more likely to identify health issues in patients using mobile application [ 13 ]. Johnson et al [ 15 ] found that nurse practitioner students perceived the usefulness of the research abstracts for their clinical decision-making using the Web version of PubMed search. Similar to observations of the PubMed4Hh usability testing by shadowing clinicians at the point of care, pilot testing revealed workflow challenges because it did not support our assumption that it would be more convenient to use TBLs compared to use of abstracts at the point of care.…”

“…The rationale for this was offered by Dr. Bakken when she stated that, “what clinicians need is decision support tools that fit into their workflow and remind them of evidence-based practice ” [ 13 ]. Nursing scholars also have pointed out that EBP is important to nursing practice to increase confidence in decision making and to improve patient outcomes [ 14 , 15 ].…”

“…However, research evidence is lacking on the effectiveness of clinical decision support for clinicians other than physicians. Johnson and colleagues found that the majority of nurse practitioner students perceived that readily available research abstracts at the point of care are useful in informing their clinical decision making, but they cited insufficient time to read the full text of articles as a constraint [ 15 ]. Bakken and colleagues studied the effect of mobile decision support on nurse practitioner students to identify health problems, counsel patients, and coordinate care plans.…”

“…There are additional barriers to adopting EBM recommendations including time constraints in clinical practice, information overload, restricted access to resources, lack of evidence appraisal skills [ 25 ], resources that are not considered trustworthy [ 15 ], and/or limited bedside access to online resources [ 26 ]. Studies show that when clinicians lack the time to search for answers to clinical questions, they prefer to use their colleagues, supervisors, and/or specialists to answer clinical questions [ 27 – 29 ].…”

“…Currently, only two studies [ 1 , 15 ] tested the usefulness of the Web version of PubMed4Hh among clinicians or nurse practitioner students. Considering the lack of evidence with regard to retrieval of health information that supports clinical decision making among clinicians, our study expands previous research by Fontelo et al [ 1 ] on the usefulness of the PubMed4Hh in clinical practice at the point of care, and make this evidence available to clinicians where it’s needed most.…”