Why are RCTs important for the Nursing Profession
Nursing practice is constantly evolving and there is a need for empirical evidence, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic (Tume, McEvoy & Tullam, 2022)
RCTs can help provide answers to the questions that nurses have about their profession and the care that they provide (Seers & Milne, 1997)
RCTs go hand-in-hand with quality improvement (Tume, McEvoy & Tullam, 2022)
New practices can be evaluated through RCTs (Tume, McEvoy & Tullam, 2022)
RCTs provide the research and evidence needed to compare different treatments and approaches and develop best practice guidelines and best outcomes for patients (Tume, McEvoy & Tullam, 2022)
“If nurses do not study the things they do, then either others (often physicians) will, or the evidence base for these aspects of our nursing care will be lacking (Tume, McEvoy & Tullam, 2022, p. 477)”
Nursing-led RCTs not only contributes to the development, goals, and strategies within the profession but also highlights the role of the nurse in the effectiveness of the guidelines (Fridlund et al, 2014)
RTCs guide clinical practice and best practice guidelines for treatments, due to its causal inference, especially when systematic reviews and meta-analysis can be conducted on multiple RTC studies (Bhide et al., 2018)