Supporting Excellence in Long-Term Care with Student EBP Projects

Beltz, Suzanne

Friday, 3 August 2012: 9:10 AM

Suzanne Beltz, PhD, RN, GCNS-BC
Loree DuBose, BSN, MSN, RN
College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, TX

Learning Objective 1: Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a group evidence-based practice project in long-term care to promote student learning and build collaborative relationships.

Learning Objective 2: Use an evidence-based practice project to support both student learning and improved patient care.

With any clinical experience, nursing students learning in the long-term care setting pose questions regarding specific practices by the health care provider(s). This curiosity of comparing what they are learning in the classroom with what they see in the clinical setting can provide learning opportunities and opportunities for best-practice dissemination to care givers in long-term care.

The Institute of Medicine identified employing evidence-based practice as a core competency for providing quality and safe patient care (Finkleman & Kenner, 2009). This practice has more prongs than research alone; it includes client values and preferences; client history and assessment data; clinical expertise; and research (p. 107).

Generally, beginning nursing students do not yet have the tools to identify clinical problems, review the literature, and critique research articles independently (Rolloff, 2010). Clinical faculty are able to direct students through the process. When teaching beginning students, mentoring them through the process of identifying best practice based on the research, faculty need to be fully engaged. Students rely on the clinical faculty to help them identify actual clinical problems that can be addressed. Students need assistance with navigating the literature, identifying literature that addresses the identified problem. This presentation will discuss the objectives for the assignment, the identification of a clinical problem, literature review at a beginning level, and how students can develop an outcome presentation.

In a South Texas baccalaureate nursing program, students in a Fundamentals of Nursing course have successfully demonstrated success with a group evidence-based project assignment. Specific examples of topics, assignment directions, presentation of the findings, and facility outcomes will be presented.

Finkleman, S., & Kenner, C. (2009). Teaching IOM: Implications of the Institute of Medicine reports for nursing education. Silver Springs, MD: American Nurses Association.

Rolloff, M. (2010). A constructivist model for teaching evidence-based practice. Nursing Education Perspectives, 31, 290-293.

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