Paper
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
This presentation is part of : Research Testing Strategies
Barriers to Implementing Evidence-Based Standards in Faculty Practice
Marilyn E. O'Rourke, MSN, RN, Community and Mental Health Nursing, Rush University College of Nursing, Chicago, IL, USA and Julia M. Cowell, RNC, PhD, FAAN, Department of Community and Mental Health Nursing, Rush University College of Nursing, Chicago, IL, USA.
Learning Objective #1: Describe strategies to utilize data from a quality improvement program to improve evidence-based care in a nursing faculty practice
Learning Objective #2: Discuss barriers to implementing Standards of Care in primary care settings
Problem: Nursing faculties face a challenge. Although they are intimately familiar with Standards of Care through teaching and evaluation of students, faculty in practice may be confronted with environments that make it difficult for them to perform in such an optimal way. To assess the quality of care delivery in primary care settings in this faculty-practice program, chart audits are conducted.

Population, Sample, Setting, Years: Contracts for faculty practice exist with 13 agencies delivering primary care. All but two organizations are social service or educational institutions without health care staff. Eleven of the 13 predominately treat underserved populations of African Americans, Hispanics, homeless individuals/families, or the working poor. Faculty peers do the chart review, 1 -2 times a year, on 4 charts randomly selected for each practitioner assigned to the site. Audits have been conducted since 1996. Because some of the deficits identified in the audits have persisted, interviews with faculty-practitioners were conducted to determine the barriers to implementing standards of care at their sites. Additionally, faculty practitioners identified strategies to enhance utilization of evidenced-based standards.

Findings: The improvement process will be described including final outcomes. Specific examples of barriers to the implementation of Standards of Care will be discussed.

Implications: Implementation of practice standards is complex. This study shows the contextual influences of evidenced-based standards in a nurse practitioner faculty practice.

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Sigma Theta Tau International
July 21, 2004