Evidence-Based Practice Essay

Evidence-Based Practice: Systems Theory and Diffusion of Innovation Theories to Healthcare Delivery and Nursing Practice

The ability to acquire accurate and timely information enhances nursing practice and patient outcomes. Search engines and healthcare nursing databases operate in different ways, and it is necessary for healthcare professionals to understand how to access and efficiently use both public and professional resources. Because today the public has greater access to electronic health information, healthcare professionals must be aware of the information their patients are accessing and be proficient at identifying credible sources. It is important for healthcare professionals to know how to use professional databases. Nursing practice needs to be based on evidence and access to healthcare databases assist nurses in identifying best practices. The use of theories from other disciplines also expands the breadth and depth of knowledge available to guide healthcare delivery and nursing practice. relating systems and diffusion of innovation theories to healthcare delivery and nursing practice. This work will discuss the relationship between systems theory and healthcare delivery in the United States and will discuss the relationship between diffusion of innovation theory and the change process within healthcare delivery in the United States. This work will additionally discuss the relationship between systems theory and current nursing practice. Finally, this work will summarize the search strategies used to acquire information on the specified theories.

Systems Theories

The work of Laszlo and Krippner (1998) entitled "Systems Theories: Their Origins, Foundations, and Development" reports that a system "…may be described as a complex of interacting components together with the relationships among them that permit the identification of a boundary-maintaining entity or process. Since social and psychological phenomena tend to resist quantitative modeling by posing basic difficulties already on the plane of boundary identification, alternative approaches must be relied upon. One such approach draws on the body of knowledge derived from General System Theory and its application in the domain of human activity systems." (p.2)

Additionally stated by Laszlo and Krippner (1998) is the fact that the history of systems theories is inclusive of "contributions from such seminal thinkers as Alfred North Whitehead, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Anatol Rapoport, Kenneth Boulding, Paul A.Weiss, Ralph Gerard, Kurt Lewin, Roy R. Grinker, William Gray, Nicolas Rizzo, Karl Menninger, Silvano Arieti, and, in more recent years, the dynamical systems theorists, the family systems theorists, and those who deal with dissipative structures and holistic paradigms." (p.2) It reported that evidence-based practice "Is an essential principle in nursing education and practice. Leading nursing organizations recommend evidence-based practice in all aspects of education and patient care services." (Laszlo and Krippner, 1998, p.1)

Systems theory is reported to have developed from "historical ideas." (Laszlo and Krippner, 1998, p.1) Specifically, in the early 1900s Ludwig von Bertalanffy, a renowned philosopher and theoretic biologist is reported to have "modernized the significance of general systems theory. The phenomenon functions it is reported to "unlock conceptual thinking" based on the idea that all levels of an organism, whether living or environmental "comprise a logical homology that should be studied as an organized whole." (Laszlo and Krippner, 1998, p.1) In the field of health care delivery, it is reported that systems theory affects the "patterns of care, policies, and practices to influence a change in the whole organization." (Laszlo and Krippner, 1998, p.1)

It is reported that Hatcher & Heetebry (2004) utilized systems theory….....