34 Ch. 11 Introduction – Population Health for Nurses | OpenStax
Public health initiatives seek to protect and enhance the health of people and the communities in which they live, work, and play. Furthermore, evidence-based practice interventions help implement these initiatives safely and effectively. These protective initiatives help teenagers enjoy life milestones such as graduating from high school. (credit: modification of work “Transit Tech CTE High School Graduation” by Marc A. Hermann/MTA/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)
Chapter Outline
Amari and Milo are two nurses working in a community health clinic. When they notice an increasing rate of anxiety in teens within the community, they find that the interventions they have used successfully in the past to help clients reduce anxiety, such as providing educational packets and programs regarding anxiety reduction, are no longer eliciting the same results.
To efficiently identify intervention changes they can make to improve outcomes for their teenage clients, Amari and Milo must combine what they find in current research with their extensive experience as client advocates. They will use evidence-based decision-making strategies to develop effective interventions. This chapter walks Amari and Milo through the process of addressing their identified community concern. It also discusses the foundations of evidence-based decision-making, where to find evidence-based information and interventions, and how to evaluate the quality of evidence for use. Furthermore, it explains the importance of evidence-based practice and evidence-based decision-making and specific tools health care providers, including nurses, can use to find and implement evidence-based interventions.