Evidence Based Practice (EBP) is the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. Evidence Based Practice (EBP), was developed due to the increased demand for accountability and improvement influenced by health care professionals, and the general public. A major component of a clinical librarian’s role is to search for evidence-based literature to support the information needs of clinical staff, and patients.
The clinical librarian takes on many roles, including expert searcher, teacher, content manager, and patient advocate. The clinical librarian collaborates with clinical staff to deliver EBP education, which includes recent studies, and trends in the field. The clinical librarian performs literature searches, instructs clinical personnel on database usage, appraises, and disseminates information for staff and patients.
Nursing focuses on the best patient outcomes by utilizing knowledge, and skill, and producing research evidence, on interventions that are used by an individual practitioner. The research indicates that evidence-based nursing is not based upon traditional practices, but is based upon research findings, operational and evaluative data. Research indicates that nurses are a large segment of clinicians that a clinical librarian serves, and do not have experience with conducting evidence based research, so the librarian’s expertise is needed.