Sharifah Shafinaz Sh Abdullah
Centre for Nursing Studies, Faculty of Health Sciences UiTM Selangor 42300 Puncak Alam Selangor, Malaysia
*Corresponding Author’s Email: shasya@uitm.edu.my
The patient’s outcome is the most essential aspect of nursing professionals. Every patient must receive current and proven treatments to achieve quality patient care. The nursing profession nowadays emphasizes the importance of applying evidence-based practices. This special issue provides a platform and is an opportune time to strengthen the existing relationship and network as well as to establish a new set of networking and to obtain as much knowledge and insights in the field of nursing, especially in Malaysia.
With the theme, Embracing Nursing Research towards Quality of Care, this special issue will provide a platform for a better understanding of the development and advancement in the nursing area. This platform should also be a foundation for identifying potential opportunities so that plans and future arrangements on the way forward of nursing services can be mapped. Unlike traditional notions, where the field of nursing is only associated with health care activities and the welfare of patients, today's world gives many opportunities and space to medical practitioners, especially those involved in the field of nursing, to improve themselves professionally so that better quality services can be provided to customers, i.e., patients including caregivers. The world of medicine, like many other fields, changes as time and technology progress. Therefore, it is crucial for medical practitioners, including nurses, to have an open mind to improve the existing situation by providing good services and using the latest treatment methods.
In line with the special issue, embracing nursing research or practicing evidence-based practice has gained momentum in the nursing profession. Although basic scientific knowledge, clinical expertise, research findings, and expert opinion are all regarded as "evidence," practices grounded on research findings are more likely to provide the intended patient outcomes across various settings and geographical locations.
Evidence-based practice necessitates modifications to student education, increased research relevant to practice, and tighter collaboration between researchers and clinicians. In addition to maximizing the benefits of clinical judgment, evidence-based practice offers chances for nursing care to be more dynamic, efficient, streamlined, and individualized. When evidence is utilized to define best practices rather than to bolster current practices, nursing care stays current with emerging technologies and capitalizes on new research findings.
By having this supplementary issue, issues and challenges can be foreseen and discussed, so that valuable feasibility inputs can be gained and gathered in preparing, especially the policymakers and curriculum developers as well as the educators, to be in full force in embracing any new technology that is being offered.