Teaching EBP Strategies to Students in a Doctor of Nursing Practice Program

This session will focus on teaching evidenced based practice (EBP) strategies to students in a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program. Selected examples of teaching strategies used to teach EBP and improvement science in one selected DNP course will be included.

Sigma Theta Tau International continues to advocate for the use of evidence-based nursing (EBN). Professional nurses across the world are called to provide nursing care from an EBP approach. Rising health care cost and the need to improve practice and health outcomes are driving the current health care environment. Using the “best evidence available” with “nursing expertise” and “patient values and preferences”, can improve health outcomes and reduce healthcare spending.

The DNP is a practice focused doctorate designed to position nurse leaders to apply evidence-based knowledge to real practice problems. EBP from a perspective of improvement science can be used by the DNP to improve practice and health outcomes through the development and application of improvement models, tools, and techniques.

This session will describe a required core DNP course, which expands on foundational EBP concepts to refine a problem statement and derive a searchable and answerable clinical question toward an improvement project.  Course assignments include problem identification and clinical question (PICOT) development, conducting a systematic review of the literature to guide the selection of methods, strategies, tools and metrics needed to complete a successful scholarly project and targeted strategies for disseminating evidence associated with scholarly projects.

Participants will see actual course content, objectives, and activities used by the faculty to advance students’ understanding of practice improvement through the lens of EBP translation and strategies.