Is Cranberry Juice Effective for Preventing and Treating Urinary Track Infection?

A 65-year-old Chinese woman, who is currently being treated for a suspected urinary tract infection (UTI), has enquired to whether cranberry juice is effective for preventing and treating UTIs. After querying the RN, they too are unsure how effective the therapeutic intervention is. Thus, there must be an investigation utilising evidence-based practice (EBP) to determine the effectiveness of the therapeutic intervention and provide accurate information to the patient. Furthermore, when delivering the information to the patient, culturally appropriate care must be considered, to ensure clear and coherent communication to the patient.
EBP provides health professionals a method to use critically appraised and scientifically proven evidence for delivering healthcare. EBP equips nurses to make clinical decisions based upon evidence, combined with clinical experience and patient expectations (Adams & Cullen, 2011). However, sufficient literature searching knowledge is essential to retrieve current, relevant and accurate evidence. Thus, the databases utilised for this search was the Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health (CINAHL), MEDLINE and Cochrane Library, due to these authoritative databases are comprised of systematic reviews, meta-analyses, randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and case studies (Monash University Library, 2012). CINAHL is a comprehensive research database that is prominently utilised by nursing students due to it provides authoritative coverage of literature related to a wide variety of nursing and allied health topics (Wishart, 2009). MEDLINE is the United States National Library of Medicine premier bibliographic database that provides medical information, specifically relating to medicine, nursing and allie...

... middle of paper ...

...e access to services, through the implementation of accessible interpreter service for clients who are non-proficient in English, by Queensland Health. The Queensland Health Interpreter Service provides assistance 24 hours a day, seven days a week in more than 130 languages, and most importantly, at no charge to the client (Queensland Health, 2012).
The case study demonstrates the necessity of culturally appropriate care from nurses, when interacting with patients and delivering healthcare to ensure satisfying and effective healthcare has been provided. While, the patient’s enquiry of the effectiveness of cranberry juice in treating and preventing UTIs shows the indispensability of EBP, through enabling nurses to make informed clinical decisions based upon scientifically proven and clinically appraised evidence, their clinical experience and patient expectations.