What Does Evidence-Based School Nursing Practice Even Mean? Get a CLUE

Abstract

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a phrase used frequently in nursing, policy, and education. This article explains three components of EBP, why it is important for school nursing, barriers to practicing EBP, and solutions to practicing EBP. This article is the first in a series of articles for NASN School Nurse that will delve into what EBP is and how it applies to school nursing using practical examples.

Framework for 21st Century School Nursing Practice™: Clarifications and Updated Definitions

“…Evidence-based practice is practice that incorporates the best available research, scientific evidence, as well as availability of resources and capacity to inform clinical decision making to promote optimal outcomes, and accounts for the particular culture and needs of the population addressed (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2015). Evidence-based practice replaces empirical and authority-based care (Bultas & McLaughlin, 2013, Maughan & Yonkaitis, 2017) and is the basis and standard of healthcare practice (Adams & McCarthy, 2007; Bergren & Maughan, 2019) for the 21st century school nurse.…”

Show Me the Evidence: COVID-19 and School Nursing in the 21st Century

“…In addition, evidence-based practice decisions must be made based on the availability of resources and clinical expertise, and accounts for the culture and needs of the targeted population (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2015; National Association of School Nurses [NASN], 2020). A Venn diagram helps illustrate that evidence-based practice is the intersection of evidence, resources, and a population’s culture (Figure 1) (Maughan & Yonkaitis, 2017).…”

Data and Information Literacy: A Fundamental Nursing Competency

“…The 2019 School Nursing: A Comprehensive Text provides the basics on evidence-based practice, quality improvement, and school health data collection . The NASN "Get a CLUE" initiative that has been published in the NASN School Nurse is a good primer on data and information literacy applied to evidence-based practice (Maughan & Yonkaitis, 2017a, 2017bMaughan & Yonkaitis, 2018a, 2018bYonkaitis & Maughan, 2018). Articles about data quality, privacy, presentation tips and data sharing manipulation designed for the new school nurse have also been published in the NASN School Nurse (Bergren, 2018;Bergren, 2019;Bergren et al, 2017;Bergren & Johnson, 2019;Guthrie, 2019;Johnson et al, 2017;Johnson et al, 2018;Lepkowski, 2018;Maughan, 2019;Wolfe et al, 2019;Wysocki & Maughan, 2019).…”