The use of Clozapine in the treatment of schizophrenia Essay

The use of Clozapine in the treatment of schizophrenia - Essay Example From the research it can be comprehended that it is the basic aim of health care systems to provide the highest quality of service possible to patients and thus novel ways to enhance service delivery are always being sought. Over the last two decades, health care has seen tremendous advancements in terms of both technology and practice and it is expected that this is a trend which will be kept up in the future. Among the most revolutionary health care aspects that have emerged during this period is Evidence-based practice (EBP). According to the National Library of Medicine Evidence-based practice is an approach to health care service provision which is guided by thoughtful integration of the best available scientific knowledge with clinical expertise. The medical practitioner can examine research data, clinical guidelines and other information tools in a bid to give the right diagnosis and thus quality treatment followed by reflection on the outcome which aid in improvements in the future. It is simply the integration of individual expertise and the best external evidence and patient values. Evidence-based Practice rightfully involves the best and most current research evidence with educational or clinical expertise and the relevant perspectives of stakeholders in order to ensure that the best possible decision is made for patients. Evidence-based Practice can be broken down into four steps that begin and end with the patient, and whose mastery defines expertise in the practice. After the four steps, implementation and re-evaluation follow. The first step involves formulating a focused clinical question after observing the patient. Such questions are carefully thought out foreground queries that generally have answers. They serve as the anchors to the other three steps of Evidence-based Practice. A mnemonic approach involving examination of the patient, the possible intervention(s) and comparisons and finally the outcome of interest is one of the best approach es put forward for developing a good foreground question. This is usually referred to as PICO (Patient, Intervention, Comparison and Outcome) (Lang 2004, p. 91). Booth (2006, pp. 358-359) argues that challenging practice rituals is a good way to come up with focused clinical questions. The primary goal is conversion of a precise and sometimes unclear information need into a query that can be answered. The type of questions that one can come up with may be predictive, interventional or explorative. The next step after the formulation of a focused question is undertaking to search for evidence. Information literacy is important here as the practitioner is required to match the PICO question with a relevant study design. Internet is quite an important tool here as it facilitates the gathering of information, and the next step in search for information is selecting on a relevant database to use, a decision influences by the time constraints and degree of information being sought. Some o f the studies usually used include systematic reviews, randomized control studies and case control studies and the choice is influenced by the PICO (Lang 2004, p. 92). Rodrigues (2000, p. 1345) is of the opinion that randomized clinical trials and systematic reviews of peer-reviewed primary research work provide coherent and systematic evidence on the effectiveness of interventions taken. The third step of Evidence-based