Paper: Building an Evidence-Based Nursing Practice Culture for Nurses in a Community Setting (20th International Nursing Research Congress Focusing on Evidence-Based Practice)

Thursday, 16 July 2009: 8:30 AM

Helen K. Burns, PhD, RN, FAAN
School of Nursing, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Linda A. Dudjak, PhD, RN, FACHE
University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, Pittsburgh, PA

Learning Objective 1: identify opportunities for a partnership between clinical and academic leaders in advancing nursing practice through the use of a collaborative model.

Learning Objective 2: describe the application of an evidence-based practice (EBP) model and related implementation strategies to establish an evidence-based culture for practicing nurses.

Over the past decade, the need to bridge the gap between healthcare research findings and their implementation into practice has been identified as critical to the provision of safe, quality patient care. The timely adoption of practice changes remains a significant barrier, however, despite a wealth of research-generated knowledge and models for practice. This disparity is especially evident in community settings, since evidence-based practice (EBP) has been viewed as an academic pursuit and EBP investigations have been conducted primarily in urban settings. Furthermore, nurses in the community setting are often isolated from access to the expertise of nurse researchers. The challenge for institutional and academic leaders becomes the creation of effective strategies for advancing nursing practice through the implementation of evidence-based models. This presentation will describe a successful translational research partnership established between an urban university and a non-academic community hospital. The infrastructure platform and program of education and skill development to support an evidence-based culture will be discussed. The authors will outline specific strategies utilized by administrative, clinical and faculty leaders to engage nursing staff in applying newly learned concepts to daily practice. Results of a pre and post implementation survey of staff nurses will be shared including demographics, nurse attitudes, knowledge, beliefs and skills for conducting evidence based practice. The presentation will also highlight opportunities for the positive outcomes of this partnership to be replicated in a variety of settings.

See more of: Changes in Evidence-Based Practice
See more of: Evidence-Based Practice Sessions – Oral Paper & Posters