Pediatric Pain Assessment in the Emergency Department, Essay Example

Evidence based practice relies on scientific proof for performing procedures, making decisions or analyzing events. Currently, many disciplines apart from nursing or healthcare apply evidence to their practice as a more scientific measure in execution of interventions. My perspective of evidence-based practice is that the process is closely linked to research. In nursing there are levels of evidence. This means that the quality of research conducted produces the level of evidence. Approximately, seven levels of evidence based on research conducted are utilized in health care or nursing science (Stevens, 2013).

The highest level is systemic reviews of randomized controlled trials and the lowest expert opinion. Health care leaders and nursing managers have to apply the relevant evidence in their work environments for health care quality to be improved. My understanding is that application of evidence based practice ought to improve health care quality and alleviate non- scientific nursing management (Stevens, 2013).

For example, evidence-based practice interventions in a pediatric emergency care setting would involve admission protocols; specific screening procedures and emergency interventions depending on the nursing diagnosis. For example, there are emergency pediatric pain management interventions as well as air way procedures. With respect to pain management in pediatric patients who cannot verbalize the extent of pain, observation evidence-based practice guidelines for pain assessment are applied. Behavior of the child is also evaluated, which gives a valuable indication of the pain level. In the application of airway evidence-based practice, emergency pediatric nurses are expected to evaluate whether rapid sequence intubation is necessary for a pediatric patient and how long it must be applied based on the evidence based protocol used by their institutions (Habich & Letizia, 2015).

References

Habich, M., & Letizia, M. (2015). Pediatric Pain Assessment in the Emergency Department: A Nursing Evidence-Based Practice Protocol. Pediatric Nursing, 41(4); 24 -36

Stevens, K.(2013) The Impact of Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing and the Next Big Ideas. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing,18 (2);12 -14