![[ Visit Client Website ]](images/banner.gif)
Saturday, 29 October 2011
Learning Objective 1: Identify a process of developing collaborative partnerships between academic and clinical entities to use evidence based practice to improve patient outcomes.
Learning Objective 2: Discuss methods of establishing and strenghtening academic-clinical partnerships.
Evidence based practice (EBP) principles have been integrated throughout the BSN curriculum at Columbus State University (CSU); however, a course dedicated to evidence based practice is required during the fall semester of the senior year. The unique characteristic of this course is the collaborative partnership that has developed between the CSU School of Nursing and major hospitals in the area. Staff nurses and administrators from area hospitals submit topics of clinical interest to the EBP teaching team each year. These topics may include questions or problems that the staff nurses are trying to answer or solve in order to improve clinical practice. Self-selected student groups choose a topic from the list to serve as the focus of the development of a practice guideline. The process of developing this practice guideline includes the formation of a PICO(T) question, review of literature, and completion of a synthesis table with pertinent data from appropriate articles. This process culminates in the presentation of each practice guideline to the nurses and administrators at the hospitals. Through the collaboration and as a direct result of the students’ practice guidelines, clinical practice in these facilities changed. This cycle of events empowers the students and nurses to see the importance of using evidence based principles to produce positive patient outcomes and see the collaborative partnership between the ivory tower and clinical practice effect change. Collaboration between partners is fostered by ongoing dialogue between the CSU teaching team and key individuals at each facility to identify areas for strengthening the relationship and maximizing the benefits for the hospitals, students, and faculty. Specific examples of the clinical changes that have occurred in the hospitals will be highlighted during the presentation as well as collaborative initiatives that worked.