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The literature contains reports of barriers to the implementation of EBP such as; lack of resources, manager and leader resistance, peer and colleague resistance, imbedded organizational culture, and time constraints. A Magnet designated pediatric hospital director who had oversight over the interprofesssional patient care practice committee (Policy and Procedure committee) recognized that although the group was responsible to create evidence-based policies and procedures, the members’ EBP competencies had never been assessed, and potential EBP knowledge and skill gaps had never been addressed. The director reached out and partnered with an EBP expert consultant/faculty from a college of nursing to develop a practical, cost effective approach to providing EBP education and skill building sessions for the interprofessional hospital patient care practice committee.
Identifying internal and external resources, nurturing academic partner relationships and developing time and cost efficient methods to incorporate EBP education and mentoring into existing structures will be identified.
Methods
An EBP competency self-report survey was administered to the patient care practice committee to determine baseline EBP knowledge and skill and to plan targeted education and skill building sessions. The critical administrative activities navigated by the director including: engagement of the committee members in the need for this critical competency; reorganizing the committee meeting schedules/agendas to incorporate the education sessions; obtaining support from the administrative representative on the committee to support the project; and more will be discussed. Most meetings included one hour of time spent in sessions on the steps of EBP and discussions on the practical application of the steps. The systematic step by step approach designed to improve the integration of evidence into patient care policies by increasing the EBP knowledge and skills of the patient care practice committee members will be shared. Participants identified specific policies that were in need of practice changes, developed PICOT questions, interacted with an evidence based practice librarian who used keywords from PICOT questions as samples for literature searches, critically appraised the evidence, and developed synthesis tables. In addition, strategies for members to employ as they implement evidence-based changes (against potential opposition, tradition, power, and politics) will be discussed. The program, including education and mentoring components will be discussed along with representative experiences and outcomes of the project.
Outcomes
As team leaders for the development and update of organization wide practice policies the patient care practice committee members developed skills and modeled the use of EBP to the knowledge experts on their policy teams. The charter for the committee was updated to include required evidence based practice decisions and committee process checklists incorporated the steps of EBP as guides to the expected incorporation of evidence. Qualitative (committee member feedback) and quantitative (pre and post EBP competency survey scores) from the interprofessional patient care policy committee members will be presented.