This includes the spirit of inquiry in an evidence-based culture.
In what ways is a spirit of inquiry important? Whereas is the spirit of inquiry important?
The spirit of inquiry is an ongoing activity of asking questions about current nursing practice and evidence seeking to enhance patient outcomes, patient safety and quality. The culture of evidence-based practice (EBP) promotes questioning and asking by nurses such as: What is there that is a better way to do this procedure? What is the “evidence” for this intervention? This attitude enables and fosters critical thinking, creativity, responsibility, and lifelong learning in health care organizations. It is very important to have an attitude of inquiry as it is the base for EBP. Assess existing practice without questioning it, including when practice and/or method are not current or evidence based. EBP brings together the best evidence possible, clinical judgment and patient preferences to guide health care decisions for better patient outcomes. A culture of inquiry (Brunt & Morris, 2023) also enables safer practice as there will be fewer errors and better efficiency in health care services. For instance, if the nurses are thinking about the issue of surgical specimen labelling and collection, in a spirit of enquiry, they can then consider how this is currently done in their surgery and how the evidence-based strategies to enhance accuracy and communication are introduced. Asking questions can help an organization discover what needs to be done to enhance practice and subsequently act to make sure patients are treated safely.
I am a voice to encourage a Spirit of Inquiry as an Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner.
As an advanced registered nurse (APRN) I can cultivate a spirit of inquiry in my practice and organization through the following:
Promote Questioning and Critical Thinking Skills
I can voice concerns and ask questions about practice, without fear of judgment, with other health care workers, especially nurses. Staff are able to express their thoughts freely with others, promoting collaboration and innovation.
Supporting EBE
Nurses can gain confidence in using research by learning to appraise research, through evidence-based guidelines and quality initiatives. Additional professional development and mentoring opportunities also help to build EBP skills.
Developing an understanding of and involvement in Research and Quality Improvement
APRNs are useful to help lead quality improvement projects, to collect data, and to practice evidence-based interventions. APRNs contribute to the practice of evidence-informed care (EIC) (Mackavey et al., 2025) by actively participating in research.
To enhance access to research materials. To increase access to research resources.
Nurses will be informed and utilizing scholarly databases, clinical guidelines and organizational resources. APRNs also can collaborate with educators and leadership teams to support EBP.
Modeling Evidence-Based Decision-Making
APRNs can be role models through the use of current evidence to make clinical decisions and caring for patients. This leadership helps to inspire other nurses to do the same.
The degree of integration of the EBP throughout different areas of the APRN’s specialty. To what extent is EBP well established in the different specialties of APRs?
Safety, standardized procedures, infection prevention, and minimizing procedure errors, are a significant portion of EBP for me, in my specialty area of Perioperative nursing/collection of surgical specimens. Evidence-based practice can feature surgical safety checklists, bar code specimen identification systems, staff education and communication systems to minimize specimen handling errors. EBP can also be a collaborative effort of everyone involved in surgery—surgeons, nurses, pathologists, lab personnel—to maximize surgical healing and patient safety in this area (Rodziewicz et al., 2024). Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) specialty is targeted towards EBP in patient education, health promotion, chronic diseases and preventive care. The FNPs are treated with clinical practice guidelines for diseases such as diabetes, blood pressure and asthma. Lastly, EBP is more likely to be employed in the family practice setting as a long-term patient care and preventive screening strategy for implementing treatment plans based on patients’ history and lifestyle. While specialization and evidence-based care are two shared themes, there are distinctions between the two fields, based on patient needs and clinical environments. Perioperative nursing emphasizes on procedural safety and on interventions for acute care, and family practice focuses more on the management of preventive and primary care. Both specialties share the ultimate goals of delivering improved patient care based on research evidence and clinical experience and on delivering patient-centered care.
Conclusion
A culture of evidence must be developed and maintained within health care and an attitude of questioning is required. It is urging health care workers to reflect and think differently about how things are done and always to find new methods of doing things that will help to enhance patient care. APRNs have an important role to play in the process of educating, collaborating, participating in research, and evidence-informed decision making that support and enable inquiry. Whether you are a clinician or any other kind of professional in health care, EBP will be a significant determinant in providing safe, quality patient-centered health care services.
Reference
Brunt, B. A., & Morris, M. M. (2023, March 4). Nursing Professional Development Evidence-Based Practice. Nih.gov; StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK589676/
Mackavey, C., Henderson, C., & Morris, G. (2025). Empowering Advanced Practice Nurses: A Review of Addressing Global Health Needs. Annals of Global Health, 91(1), 45. https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.4723
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Explain the importance of a “spirit of inquiry” in an evidence-based culture and what you can do as an advanced registered nurse to encourage this within your practice or organization. Compare the role and implementation of EBP in your specialty area with another advanced registered nurse specialty. Discussion 2