Description/Overview: Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, EHMC, a magnet designated 250 bed community hospital in New Jersey, has successfully moved their professional nursing staff towards unified implementation of evidence based practice, utilizing the IOWA model as their foundation. This symposium will demonstrate how EHMC’s Center for Nursing Practice successfully implemented their five-phase strategic plan of practice change; 1) education of key management individuals, 2), developing supportive infrastructure, 3) education of key nursing personnel, 4) hospital-wide education of all nursing staff, and 5) adaptation of forms. Participants will gain knowledge of methods to reduce the barriers towards change that frequently occur in hospital-based nursing practice through understanding of behavior change theory and application of effective strategies and methods. Through participation in this symposium, participants will gain knowledge of the IOWA model, will have the opportunity to hear the lessons learned from this two year journey, and will see how interdisciplinary teams (IT, nursing, utilization review, and hospital based councils) combined their efforts to stream-line the process through form evaluation and adaptation. This presentation will also demonstrate how to develop buy-in for the hospital-wide changes needed in this rapidly changing health care environment, demonstrating the positive impact and benefits of a unified, standardized application and implementation of evidence-based nursing practice.

Learner Objective #1: Each participant will demonstrate three methods to move hospital-based nurses towards evidence based practice.

Learner Objective #2: Each participant will demonstrate knowledge of the IOWA model of EBP ,and how Englewood Hospital adapted the forms to meet the needs of the hospital.