Objective: The purpose of this presentation is to support evidence-based nursing through the utilization of a teaching tool by inpatient psychiatric nurses in educating patients with mental illness on effective community reintegration.

Methodology: This teaching tool is comprised of four sections. The first section is an annotated bibliography which includes specific applications to the population served by the inpatient unit. The second section is the utilization of King's (1981) Systems Framework as the operational conceptual model of the teaching tool. The third section is a collection of themes on effective community reintegration obtained from patient focused groups and interviews with community service providers and other experts. The final section is comprised of nursing care plan templates on community reintegration that are based on the literature. Inpatient psychiatric nurses are trained in the utilization of this tool through scheduled in-service trainings.

Conclusions: Outcome measures from the internal inpatient discharge planner database will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the education program. Annual presentations of updated annotated bibliography and an accessible peer resource on community reintegration are needed to sustain learning and ongoing implementation of evidence-based nursing.

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Sigma Theta Tau International
July 21, 2004