Evidence-based Medicine and Evidence-based Nursing Practice — a review of the Polish scientific literature

The study aimed to analyse the Polish scientific literature on the use of Evidence-based Medicine in research and the use of Evidence-based Nursing Practice in supporting clinical decisions of nurses and midwives.

The selection of the literature involved two stages. The first stage focused on an analysis of the resources of the “Polish Medical Bibliography”. The other stage involved a detailed analysis of scientific articles published between 2000 and 2013 in Polish scientific journals indexed in the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education list of scientific journals without impact factor (List B).

Among the 34 publications, there were: 6 clinical studies, 2 conference reports, one monograph, and one article; these publications were excluded from further analysis. A total of 24 publications were included in the final analysis. Nine pubprekurlications covered the issue of the use of EBM and EBP in medical practice, 5 publications were devoted to the use of EBM and EBP in nursing practice, and 2 publications concerned their use in physiotherapy practice.

The number of articles on EBM and EBP in the Polish scientific literature has still been insufficient. Publications devoted to the use of reliable results in clinical practice of specialists in different fields of medicine have been prevailing. However, the insufficient number of articles covering the present issue in health sciences is noticeable. The issue of EBP is mostly discussed with reference to the improvement of the quality of nursing care for patients and its efficacy (economic included) in nursing and physiotherapy.

Nursing Topics 2014; 22 (2): 223–227