The 1990 Commission on the National Nursing Shortage, designed to implement projects recommended by the 1988 Commission on Nursing, focused on a number of areas: student recruitment and education pathways, career development and retention of nursing personnel, the restructuring of nursing services, effective utilization of nursing personnel, data collection and analysis requirements, and use of information systems and related technology in nursing. The current intervention that evolved from these previous action include evidence based practice. Evidence based practice (EBP) is a conscientious, problem-solving approach to clinical practices that incorporates the best evidence from well-designed studies, patient values and preferences, and a clinician`s expertise in making decisions about a patient`s care. The inclusion of EBP in nursing provides nurses with the scientific research to make well-founded decisions.
Wound healing dressings play a major role in wound management, especially for burn injuries. Lately, the development of resistant pathogens has become a major problem. Designing new dressings has provided breakthrough for the treatment of infections and injuries. The antibacterial properties and toxicity of silver nanoparticles against microorganisms are well known and are therefore used in various types of formulations, such as surface coating agents, wound dressings, etc. Wound dressings containing silver nanoparticles use delivery systems that release silver in various concentrations. Various factors, such as the distribution of silver in the dressing, its chemical and physical form, the affinity of dressing to moisture also influence the destruction of microorganisms [15].
Hydrogels have become very popular due to their unique properties, such as high-water content (80-90%), flexibility and biocompatibility. Natural and synthetic hydrophilic polymers can be physically or chemically crosslinked to produce hydrogels. Their resemblance to living tissue offers opportunities for a wide range of biomedical applications. Currently, hydrogels are used for the manufacture of contact lenses, hygiene products, tissue engineering scaffolds, controlled drug delivery systems and wound dressings. There are a number of both natural: collagen, chitosan, alginate and synthetic polymers: polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polylactic acid (PLA) which can serve as biomedical hydrogels [16], [17].
Studies have shown that silver nanoparticles in various shapes such as nanocubes, nanowires, nanospheres, and triangular nanoplates, can have a different antibacterial activity. Silver triangular nanoplates and nanospheres are the ones that presented the best antimicrobial activity against several microorganisms like Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus. This indicates tha
