Paper: Integrating Evidence-Based Practice into a Nursing Research Course in an Accelerated Nursing Baccalaureate Curriculum: A Model to Link Service and Education (20th International Nursing Research Congress Focusing on Evidence-Based Practice)

Thursday, 16 July 2009: 2:25 PM

Tina M. Martin, RN, MSN, CFNP¹
Michelle Burns, RN, MSN²
LaDonna Kaye Northington, DNS, CCRN, BC³
Jean T. Walker, RN, PhD⁴
Audwin Fletcher, RN, MSN, PHD, FNP⁴
Patricia A. Waltman, RN, EdD, CNNP⁵
Theresa M. Doddato, EdD, CRNA³
1School of Nursing, University of Mississippi School of Nursing, Jackson, MS
2The Office of Nursing Excellence, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS
3School of Nursing, University of Mississippi, Jackson, MS
4School of Nursing, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS
5University of Mississippi School of Nursing, Jackson, MS

Learning Objective 1: describe three processes of incorporating evidence based practice into a nursing curriculum.

Learning Objective 2: analyze the effectiveness of a model using nursing students to enhance application of evidence based research into the clinical setting.

The quest to remove barriers of evidence based practice integration into nursing education courses continues to be a difficult task. The following model demonstrates an effective process of integrating nursing knowledge and beliefs regarding evidence based practice as applied to nursing curriculum. The model utilized for this research included a patient education committee, Pathfinders, at a large academic health science center and a baccalaureate school of nursing. The purpose of this project was to develop learning opportunities to promote student’s awareness and synthesis of research principles as applied to practice. A prior audit of patient education documentation by the Pathfinders committee revealed poor compliance among registered nurses in the clinical setting. This model establishes a retrospective chart review by students to determine effectiveness of patient education documentation. Twenty-three BSN accelerated nursing students enrolled in a nursing research course were integrated into the model for data collection and analysis. For each phase of this research project, experts in evidence base practice were brought in to assist students with understanding of research concepts, audit tool modification, inter-rater reliability and application to practice. In addition, the students presented the research findings, literature synthesis and implications for practice in oral group presentations.
The benefits of the academic-service partnership are numerous. This project may offer a template to develop academic-service partnerships to enhance evidence based practice utilization. As educators prepare to make curricular changes in response to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s new set of competency standards (Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice), this type of project correlates very well to establish collaborative links to promote EBP in the workplace with existing staff RN’s, promoting enthusiasm and establishing the importance of EBP with nursing students and possibly influencing their practice.

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