Actors can participate in their own stunts and become characters in their own fantasy worlds, improvising with intuition and creativity. But nurses must be grounded in sound practice performances based on scientific evidence and cutting-edge research. No one wants a nurse who is like Alice in Wonderland. Clients expect nurses to be knowledgeable, safe, and have expert clinical and communication skills. Take a few minutes and put your skills to the test.

Nurses demonstrate the application of evidence-based practice every day. Decision-making and critical thought are essential. Based on what you know about evidence-based practice in nursing, answer yes or no to the following activities nurses perform for drug administration. Which ones exemplify evidence-based practice?

1. Taking a client’s pulse prior to administration of Digoxin 0.25 mg PO q AM.
2. Giving a client water with medication.
3. Calling the pharmacist and asking about a drug.
4. Looking up coumadin 5 mg PO q PM for drug interactions in a nursing drug reference book.
5. Becoming a nurse researcher.
6. Following the nursing policy for drug administration that is on the intranet for that institution.

Okay, got your answers? You didn’t cheat, did you? Here you go:

1. Taking the client’s pulse prior to administration of a cardiac glycoside such as Digoxin is performing an assessment based on evidence practice. Drug resources state to check the client’s apical pulse prior to administration.
2. Giving the client water with medication is not based on evidence practice. If the nurse researched the drug with a drug reference prior to administration regarding whether to administer the drug with water or food, then this would be an example of evidence-based practice.
3. Calling the pharmacist may be warranted and a good decision, but the information is just the pharmacist’s opinion until the nurse verifies the reference from which the answer came.
4. Researching medications in drug references is practicing evidence-based interventions.
5. Becoming a nurse researcher is a great endeavor, but in and of itself, it is not evidence-based practice.
6. Nursing policies are based on research and evidence-based practice. References should be available that validate that the intervention stated in policies are research based.

Editor’s note: This excerpt was adapted from Stressed Out About Drug Interactions, HCPro, Inc., 2007.