Paper
Friday, 21 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Creating a Culture for Evidence-Based Practice: One Institution's Story
Conversion of Procedures and Clinical Practice Guidelines to Evidence-Based
Rita A. Bendekovits, RN, MSN, ONC, Center for Professional Excellence, Lehigh Valley Hospital, Allentown, PA, USA and Patricia A. Matula, RN, BSN, MSN, Health Care Research, Lehigh Valley Hospital, Allentown, PA, USA.
Evidence-based guidelines have been recommended as a means to change the practice environment to impact patient outcomes and the quality of care. Over 700 procedures and clinical practice guidelines existed in the institution. The Leadership Team enlisted the support the EBP clinical experts.  This group of dedicated researchers, administrators and unit-based educators served as the implementation team for EBP-related activities. In 2005 the EBP experts received extensive education on the EBP process to serve as mentors and educators skilled in conducting evidence reviews and determining levels of evidence. These EBP experts established academic affiliations with local colleges and universities to utilize students to support the EBP process.

During the review process, one or more EBP experts work closely with specialty–based expert teams to help rate levels of evidence and provide guidance on EBP search methods, including recommending search engines and search terms. Once the procedure or CPG is complete, the specialty-based clinical expert team approves and signs off on the revised guideline. At that point, the institution’s Risk Management department and any other relevant department also approves and signs off on the revised guideline. This project’s restructured approach to procedures and CPGs allows for approval from a team of experts in the clinical area related to the procedure or CPG. This presentation will discuss the process for bringing evidence-based guidelines to the point of care.

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)