Paper
Saturday, 22 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Creating an Evidence-Based Nursing Environment: Leadership Strategies
Putting Evidence Into Practice: A Strategy for Identifying and Implementing Evidence-Based Nursing Interventions
Linda Eaton, MN, RN, AOCN1, Gail Mallory1, Barbara Lubejko, MS, RN2, Robi L. Thomas, MS, RN, AOCN, CHPN1, and Linda Lillington, DNSc, RN1. (1) Research Team, Oncology Nursing Society, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, (2) Education Team, Oncology Nursing Society, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Learning Objective #1: describe the strategy of using a team of nurses to identify evidence–based interventions.
Learning Objective #2: discuss how to disseminate information on evidence-based nursing interventions into practice.
The Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) is committed to identifying the evidence base for oncology nursing practice and demonstrating the impact of oncology nursing interventions on patient outcomes. To achieve this goal, an outcomes strategic plan was developed and evidence-based summaries for measuring eleven nursing-sensitive patient outcomes (www.ons.org) were completed in 2004.  Project teams, comprised of a nurse researcher, three advanced practice nurses (APNs), and three staff nurse “partners”, were convened in 2005 to review, synthesize and identify the level of evidence for interventions for four patient outcomes: nausea and vomiting; prevention of infection; fatigue; and sleep-wake disturbances.
 
The process used by the project teams for evaluating the evidence for the interventions was: 1) identifying interventions to evaluate, 2) searching for and obtaining the evidence for each intervention, 3) assessing the type and quality of the evidence (Hadorn, 1996 & Clinical Evidence Concise, 2002), and 4) summarizing the strength of the evidence.  The outcomes of this process were laminated cards that summarize the evidence for each intervention for use in the clinical setting. All background information, including definitions of the interventions and tables of evidence, are available on the ONS Website (www.ons.org).  Future plans include developing additional summaries and cards, re-evaluating and updating the cards every three years, and developing a plan for evaluating the impact of evidence-based nursing interventions on oncology patient care.   
 
The role of a professional organization in convening members to identify evidence-based interventions is an innovative and effective strategy for synthesizing and summarizing the evidence for practice. Designing a user-friendly tool that identifies interventions based on levels of evidence enables nurses to make informed decisions regarding patient care.  Disseminating this information in the clinical area and on the Internet allows the best evidence to be readily available for nursing practice.

See more of Creating an Evidence-Based Nursing Environment: Leadership Strategies
See more of The 17th International Nursing Research Congress Focusing on Evidence-Based Practice (19-22 July 2006)