Paper
Friday, 21 July 2006
The Infrastructure
Mary Del Guidice, RN, BS, MSN, CNA, Admin, Lehigh Valley Hospital, Allentown, PA, USA
Efforts to implement EBP network-wide had been successful but inconsistent since the program kick-off in 2004. A team composed of the vice-president of clinical services, the director of Health Care Research, the Evidence-based Practice Specialist, three nursing directors, the quality manager and a representative from organizational development was established to provide overall guidance for EBP. As a way to introduce this ground-breaking initiative to hospital personnel, the leadership team developed a 30- minute formal presentation, which was presented to management staff during a monthly meeting. During this presentation, the team explained that all hospital procedures and clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) would be revised based on current evidence and that all staff would participate in this initiative. Meeting attendees learned that the leadership group would be conducting multiple education sessions to educate staff on: the evolution of EBP, key components in the process, levels of evidence and their relationship to practice, strategies for finding relevant evidence and the method for performing an evidence-based review. These two hour sessions were preceded by a one and a half hour session by the Medical Library Director that focuses on effective literature searching.Upon completion of the education sessions, the unit directors and administrators will build specialty-based expert teams consisting of physicians, pharmacists, nurses, rehab services and respiratory care to revise procedures and CPGs. This is the first step in bring evidence to the bedside. Phase two will consist of championing EBP at the staff level. The goal will be to achieve one EBP project in 89% of units by the end of fiscal year 2007. This presentation will discuss the driving forces behind the EBP Leadership group including the role of the EBP Experts, Practice Council and Procedure Committee.
See more of Creating a Culture for Evidence-Based Practice: One Institution's Story
See more of The 17th International Nursing Research Congress Focusing on Evidence-Based Practice (19-22 July 2006)