Introduction
With the ever-changing state of health systems, a clinical laboratory professional must stay updated with the current systems. Incorporating Evidence-Based Practices increases the clinician’s relevance and improves patient outcomes. Many critics argue that this method is not an effective mode of Medical Laboratory. This paper will discuss how Evidence-Based Practice is essential to the clinical laboratory profession and how a person can maintain relevance in the clinical laboratory.
Importance of Evidence-Based Practice to Clinical Laboratory Profession
Clinical laboratory professionals need to make health decisions based on the most useful, effective, up-to-date, and appropriate evidence available. This method of making resolutions based on evidence is regularly used in several health systems and is referred to as Evidence-Based Practice. It is important because it integrates the clinician’s prior knowledge with the best available evidence. Professionals are always encouraged to question themselves if their way of making a decision is the most effective based on the most current research.
Evidence-based practice is known to improve the clinical skills of laboratory experts. This is because the professional first seeks to understand the patient, and then considers the available relevant research and evidence before turning to personal knowledge. Thus, rather than reducing the role of the expert, it encourages experiential thinking and enables the physicians to continuously improve their skills (Karagiannis, 2018). Evidence-based practice also ensures collaborative work in problem solving between the laboratory expert and the client. Its practice highly encourages practitioners to put the client’s views and opinions at the core in their decisions.
Implementation of Evidence-Based Practices has become easy and effective in recent times, saving clinicians time and energy. In the term, their productivity increases as they only focus on the crucial part of the work. Certain applications, such as PubMed Clinical Queries [85], can help save considerable time (Karagiannis, 2018). In addition to making the job more manageable, various methods can conduct Evidence-Based Practices. The multiple techniques help solve conflicts of interest and opinions among researchers and practitioners. Generally, Evidence-Based Practices ensure more accurate laboratory tests and eventually a better patient outcome. They also enhance optimal utilization of healthcare resources; for instance, accurate diagnostics ensure only one test is done to a victim. Moreover, they discourage outdated laboratory procedures, which yield less than optimal outcomes. It is thus vital that every Clinical laboratory expert adopt these practices.
Maintaining Relevance in Clinical Laboratory
With the ever-changing scope of clinical laboratory, a practitioner who wants to continue being relevant should ensure that their decision-making is data-driven. Data-driven decision-making involves using facts and metrics to guide your experiments. The professional should also seek to be outcome-based in which the goals are put before procedures. In doing their work, the professional should strive to be evidence-based. This approach should be integrated with the clinician’s expertise to make a conclusive decision.
For anyone to maintain their relevance in the clinical laboratory, they must be willing to change regularly. In a study done by Nilsen et al. (2020), it was found that medical laboratory experts need three core values to succeed. First, they have to be ready to take advantage of changes and improvements to improve change. The Medical technologist also has to be prepared for change, and lastly, they have to be willing to make replacements, meaning that the laboratory expert has to value dynamics.
Conclusion
To sum up, the application of Evidence-Based Practices is essential for clinical laboratory professionals. The approach helps them make sound decisions based on the available evidence. It ensures that the laboratory tests are accurate, enhancing the manageability of resources. In addition, Evidence-Based Practices discourage outdated laboratory procedures; thus, optimal outcomes are expected. To remain relevant in the area, the practitioners should ensure that their decisions are data-driven and outcome-based, enhancing effectiveness.
References
Karagiannis, T. (2018). The importance of applying evidence-based medicine in clinical practice. Management of Hypertension, 3–17. Web.
Nilsen, P., Seing, I., Ericsson, C., Birken, S. A., & Schildmeijer, K. (2020). Characteristics of successful changes in health care organizations: An interview study with physicians, registered nurses, and assistant nurses. BMC Health Services Research, 20(1). Web.