Family Nurse Practitioners (FNP) are registered nurses (RN) who serve as health care providers in specialty or primary care with the oversight of a doctor (MD). Think of a family physician and one may get the idea of what a family nurse does. Family Nurse Practitioners assist patients at a variety of points in their lives including diagnosing sickness, conducting routine check-ups, presenting information on disease prevention, performing x-rays and screenings, and writing up prescriptions for medication. Family Nurse Practitioners do not perform major surgeries although they may assist with minor ones. Finally, Family Nurse Practitioners can be the only healthcare provider that some patients see and they are licensed or board certified to run their own private practices outside of a hospital.

Research in evidence-based practice helps to improve the quality of patient care as well as unify the national guidelines so all practices are generally in line with standard practices. However, in many cases, the results of research are not very often integrated into practice. People in charge tend to stick to theory while not giving much effort to the practicality of that theory (Donelan, DesRoches, Dittus, & Buerhaus, 2013). If research is implemented, it could take years to pass all the rules and regulations. Then, when it is passed, it is outdated because the technology has changed or there are more younger employees who attempt to do practice differently. Some have found that it can take nearly twenty years before research is integrated into practice. And very often, all or most of the results are not integrated even at that point. Nurse Practitioners have to make special effort to understand the concepts presented by evidence-based practice and find ways to implement results into their individual practice or within doctors’ offices and other practice settings.

When attempting to make a decision based on evidence, one must consider the whole patient including the patient’s physical state, the conditions of the health problem, and patient preferences. In a patient-centered model, evidence-based practice is especially emphasized because it is concerned with the patient and is often a mutual decision between practitioner and patient alike (Schadewaldt, McInnes, Hiller, & Gardner, 2013). Nursing models of care are especially compatible to evidence-based practice because the framework promotes an integration of scientific evidence and preferences of the patient.

To put such a practice to work, one must identity an existing or potential problem and then develop a proposal for change. The proposal will detail as much knowledge available as possible as well as one or several solutions, followed by a new set of practice guidelines. Reviewing and analyzing current literature on the problem and then supporting any solutions or changes with research does take time but it is a necessary step in the research process. This could go for any kind of nurse but especially nurse practitioners and primary healthcare professionals are “expected to incorporate ‘best evidence’ into their clinical decisions, and therefore require skills in accessing, retrieving, appraising and applying research findings” (McCaughan, Thompson, Cullum, Sheldon, & Raynor, 2005, p. 490).

One common method used to review and analyze research is the PICO model. The P stands for patient population; the I stands for potential intervention or interest area; C stands for control versus comparison groups in the study; and the O stands for the expected outcome. A clinical question in the field of nursing might be difficult to frame but these components can assist in developing a focused question.