---

All nurses want to achieve the best possible outcomes for their patients.  Yet, studies have consistently demonstrated that there is a gap between the knowledge that is available from research and the knowledge that nurses use to drive practice.  The purpose of this symposium is to describe the successful strategies and  methods that have been used to bridge that research knowledge-practice gap and create a culture of evidence-based nursing practice in the medical centers of a national health care system in the United States.  The overview presentation presents the programmatic infrastructure and strategies used to create and sustain the cultural changes within and beyond nursing departments that were needed for evidence-based nursing practice to thrive.  It highlights the processes for creating effective, collaborative relationships with both nursing and transdisciplinary leaders, including hospital administrators, chief financial officers, physicians, and institutional review board administrators.  The second presentation explains how internal collaborations were employed to develop medical center and ambulatory care teams dedicated to nursing research and evidence based practice.  Included are tools for team development, communication, and evaluation.  The third presentation illustrates how a nursing research residency program connects staff nurses to research.  It features activities such as an on-line reflective journal that increase the resident’s research knowledge, project management skills, and leadership abilities.  The fourth presentation elucidates how an academic-service partnership advances both faculty and staff nurses’ involvement in research in the clinical setting.  Included in this final presentation are the requirements for the successful operationalization of these types of external collaborations.  The outcome of the integration of these strategies is a defined programmatic structure that promotes nursing research among many disciplines and involves them in using the best evidence available for patient care, to improve nursing practice and patient outcomes. This symposium shares our discoveries as a roadmap for others.