Problem:
As a staff nurse, you decide to become a member of your institution's "Evidence-Based Practice" Committee. This committee uses chart reviews and other outcomes data to collect information about patient care and safety issues, nursing practice issues, adherence to institutional policy and procedure, and patient outcomes. A recent report indicated that postoperative patients on the surgical floors may still be experiencing inadequate pain control despite the appropriate administration of as-needed pain medications. Committee members are interested in adding the use of complementary therapies to the current pain management protocol, believing that this will assist nurses in helping patients achieve appropriate postoperative pain control.
How would the committee begin to find evidence to support the use of specific complementary therapies?