Evidence Based Mental Health Nursing

The used of evidence based practice has become a popular method in deciding what is best for the management and caring of client's with mental illness. Moreover, this method is derived from using best available research evidence from international counterparts of what is best to be practice. This is however is decided by a Mental health nurse of who has significant background of doing research study and putting it into practice in their clinical area and specialty. Moreover, the intervention identified is of the discretion of the Mental health nurse of whether it can be of good use or vice versa depending on the appropriateness, safetyness, feasibility and effectiveness of the intervention. Combining both, may create an arrays of intervention that might suit for the patients' treatment, adding to it, in respecting the patients rights and value of choosing which intervention posed to be the best for his/her treatment.

Nevertheless, this posed to be a challenge. Since the most research study derived from randomized control trials 'quantitative' are of 'gold standard' aka best available resource in the evidence hierarchy, the literatures from Mental health nursing are mostly of qualitative approach and appeared to be of low evidence. This is similar of using grey literatures such as non-peer reviewed articles, books and so forth.

Positivists looks into quantitative as an objective and measurable method, gaining the result through rigorous mathematical statistical analysis with control subjects, thus looking into numbers or macro samples. While qualitative is of the in-depth perceptions, looking into subjective data that surrounds the individual who have experience of certain issues. This is closely related to cause and effect. Having to see of how nursing practice might produces any positive outcome or vice versa. Once identified, what are the underlining factors and themes?

Having used of grounded theory, phenomenology and ethnography, this does not use of scientific approach but rather identifying underlying themes of an issues that affect the individual or client alike using experiences and perceptions. Since the basis of Mental health nursing practice is on human interaction and behaviour that led to used qualitative approach, this has not been in favour amongst the scientific community as they rather want hard evidence using experimental methodology and design that might induce 'best' practice.

Therefore, to what extent can we Mental health nurses choose which approach might induce best practice. Since the evidence is only derived on scientific approach rather than human experiences, the best way is to use 'clinical judgment' that deals with the mental health nurse with extensive analysis of patterns between the issue and the human subject. Adding critical thinking of how this human experiences might have an impact on the nursing practice should be considerate. This is because some of this issues might be potential of what is the outcome of the treatment and care, similarly the quality and effectiveness of the care given.

With clinical judgment and critical thinking, this will predetermine the use of any approaches whether quantitative or qualitative of which might produce the 'best' practice corresponding to the effectiveness, appropriateness, feasibility and safetyness of the client and the mental health nurse. After all, at the end of the day, the client has the say whether to agree with the evidence based practice treatment as he/she determines the whole outcome of the management and care.