Identifying strategies to integrate evidence based practice into nursing curricula can be challenging.  Faculty directed, community-based experiences with care delivered by undergraduate nursing students in academic Nurse Managed Centers (NMCs), is a collaborative strategy used at an urban university.  The Omaha System provides a mechanism for monitoring outcomes of care and evidence for practice. The validity and reliability of the Omaha System is well established and integrates a problem classification scheme, a nursing intervention scheme, and an outcomes measurement scale that allows evaluation of nursing care to enhance practice and patient outcomes.

This research described prevalent problems among clients, and identified intervention categories and targets utilizing the Omaha System to measure the impact of nursing care and improve nursing practice. 

Faculty members managing six academic NMCs were trained to use the Omaha System, and subsequently trained students.  Data were collected for 156 community living Psychiatric/Mental health clients and 134 elders living independently in the community.  The five most frequently reported problems were analyzed for pre/post test comparison of ratings of knowledge, behavior, and status using a paired sample t-test (p<.05).

Statistically significant changes were noted in knowledge for the top five problems.  Significant changes were also noted in knowledge, behavior, and status for problems of nutrition and housing.

The Omaha System was a valid and effective data collection tool, a valid guide for interventions, and a structure for building evidence based practice.  The collaborative faculty/student research model provides a mechanism to expand clinical research, link research to practice, and support evidence based practice to improve the health of the clients in the community.