Creating Opportunities to Link Academia and Organizations Through Research

Connecting academia and organizations through evidence-based practice and research processes provides educators with a unique opportunity to create a trajectory of teaching and learning experiences.  By creating collaborative opportunities within an RN to BSN curriculum, we have been able to realize a significant bridge between the academic – practice gap. 

In the present project, students in an RN to BSN Evidence-Based Practice and Nursing Research course are encouraged to analyze evidence-based practice questions that are pertinent to their own work setting.  Students are encouraged to discuss organizational priorities with their peers and supervisors to find a topic that will be applicable in their work setting.  At the completion of the evidence-based practice project, the course instructor encourages students to consider continuation of the project as a translation and/or research project within their institutions.  Further, the course instructor offers to work with the student in the role of research consultant to help the project progress.   Currently, the author has several ongoing projects that began as student evidence-based practice projects and have now been approved as research studies within the students’ workplace. 

There are numerous benefits to this partnership.  First, registered nurses who engage in evidence-based practice translation and nursing research are continuing to develop their own knowledge about the process and the topic of interest, as well as contributing to the elevation of the profession as a whole.  Second, the organization benefits from the ongoing research and the commitment to bring evidence to the bedside.  Finally, the individual faculty member is afforded the opportunity to continue a robust research agenda, as well as continuing to remain abreast of new clinical initiatives. 

This poster highlights one project in which a student completed an evidence-based practice project regarding the use of music to decrease falls among hospitalized dementia patients that is now progressing  as a quasi-experimental study within the student’s workplace, with the student as the primary investigator.  This project exemplifies the unique opportunities that can be created to bridge the education-practice gap.