Academic Partnerships: Developing Clinical Leader and Frontline Staff QI Scholars through EBP Implementation Programs

Purpose:
This presentation describes two academic partnership initiatives that prepare leaders and clinical nurses to translate evidence into practice as QI scholars. Methods to facilitate change and outcomes based on NDNQI nurse-sensitive indicators are examined as a basis for clinical improvements.

Significance:
Clinical nurses may be supportive of QI, but it may be incorrect to assume they have the knowledge to examine process and outcome data, effectively implement a practice change, and sustain change. Academic partnerships are an innovative way to create a culture that moves EBP into clinical practice.

Strategy and Implementation:
“The nation must significantly expand its capacity to use scientific evidence to assess what works in health care” (IOM, 2009). Pravikoff et al. (2005) identified “RN's in the United States aren't ready for EBP.” An overview of two academic partnerships for leaders and clinical nurses to develop skills as EBP and QI scholars is shared. Evidence Implementation Fellowship and Capstone Course in Nursing, an EBP/QI synthesis course for online RN-to-BS students at Purdue University Calumet is highlighted. Participants enrolled in each program actively engage in experiential learning, develop a real-world QI/EBP implementation project, examine NDNQI nursing sensitive data, and demonstrate connections between structure, process and outcomes. Success stories and EBP project implementation experiences enhanced through the academic partnership between the Director in Nursing, Magnet and Process Improvement, Adventist Hinsdale Hospital, and faculty at Purdue Calumet School of Nursing are shared.

Evaluation:
The American Society for Quality has identified four components of quality in education: accountability, curriculum alignment, assessment, and student satisfaction. Program evaluations, NDNQI nurse-sensitive data, and positive outcomes with QI projects demonstrate academic partnership success.

Implications for Practice:
Success of QI and EBP depends on an organizational culture with the structure and processes in place to support continuing education. Academic partnerships move QI into clinical practice, improve patient outcomes, and give leaders and frontline clinical nurses the confidence to become QI scholars.