Global Nursing Leadership Collaboration: Chinese Evidence-Based Practice Immersion Program

The mission of the Institute of Johns Hopkins Nursing is to share innovations in practice, education, and research.  Through a partnership with the Chinese Nursing Committee and a Chinese educational consultant,  two nurses from United States  traveled to Beijing China to present a weeklong evidence-based practice (EBP) immersion program for Chinese nurse leaders.  Twenty-six participants representing 18 Chinese hospitals completed the program.   The EBP program was framed around the EBP question: Will the assessment of fall injury risk factors and the implementation of appropriate interventions decrease serious injury from falls in the adult acute care setting? Identifying a focused topic for the program enabled participants to understand how to develop a practice question; search and appraise the evidence; and translate findings. Knowledge translation, applying EBP knowledge within the complex of healthcare settings in China,  lead Chinese nurse leaders to identify the need to develop a strategic plan to introduce EBP in their hospitals. The plan would include an assessment of organizational readiness, alignment with the hospital mission, and identification of necessary resources to support the infrastructure for EBP. Challenges identified by participants included staff educational levels, shortage of nurses, and patient-nurse ratios in China. Lessons learned in working with interpreters will be shared. The weeklong course was followed by monthly webinars for 6 months to provide further examples of EBP. The experience enabled the conceptualization of a global perspective of healthcare and professional nursing perspectives that facilitated the formation of partnerships to expand the offering of EBP training programs.   Implications for future collaborations will be shared.