Two EBP Strategies
Implementing evidence-based practice (EBP) is a critical technique for enhancing care quality. EBP is a problem-solving approach to health care delivery that seamlessly integrates evidence from studies and patient care information with professional experience and patient preferences and values (Gallagher-Ford et al., 2011). Melnyk (2012) suggests that EBP’s ultimate goal is to improve healthcare quality and patient experiences while lowering hospital expenses. It is vital to establish an EBP culture in which every employee in the organization is constantly seeking ways to enhance the performance, reliability, and effectiveness of care (Melnyk, 2012). The Workplace Environment Assessment results revealed that the indicators of extensive mentoring personnel involvement, conflict resolution, and workload balance should be enhanced. Fostering leadership and developing an EBP set of skills are two dissemination strategies applied to communicate EBP.
One of the major issues is that employees who experienced conflicts did not find the resolution compelling and experienced the same problems. Thus, leadership endorsement will assist in solving disputes. Melnyk (2012) states that high-reliability healthcare organizations start with leaders and point-of-care providers who think about and reflect on the care being provided and question how it might be improved regularly. Moreover, it takes one dedicated individual to lead a team vision to enhance healthcare for patients and their families (Melnyk et al., 2011). The second strategy is to train several EBP mentors for the healthcare system. Results illustrated that despite the organization’s extensive mentorship program, new nurses find it ineffective. According to the nurses, their mentors do not have time to teach them. The EBP set of skills developments will enhance the knowledge within the organization by providing adequate training, thus, reducing the workload and solving the staffing issues, such as nursing shortage, burnout, and workload.
Importance of the Two Strategies
Notably, the ARCC Model was employed in order to select two strategies. Melnyk et al. (2017) acknowledge that the Clinical Practice through Close Collaboration (ARCC) Model is a system-wide approach to developing and sustaining EBP in healthcare organizations. According to ARCC, increased EBP beliefs in clinicians lead to more application of evidence-based practice, which results in greater work satisfaction, lower staff turnover, and better patient outcomes (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2018, Melnyk et al., 2017). Fostering EBP inside organizations necessitates a solid foundation, which includes nursing leadership and personnel and material resources (Newhouse et al., 2007). The first strategy in establishing the EBP program is leadership enhancement. Newhouse et al. (2007) state that leadership is essential for preparing organizations for change. Additionally, effective leadership will improve patient and staff safety.
The ARCC Model is built around a critical mass of EBP mentors. They help point-of-care doctors improve their ideas about the usefulness of EBP and their confidence in applying it through purposeful strategic activities (Melnyk et al., 2017). Thus, the second strategy includes training EBP professionals to serve as future advisors (Newhouse et al., 2007). Hence, these people are supposed to be the key proponents and enablers of EBP.
Two Barriers
The barriers when using the dissemination strategies include, first, inflexible nurse schedules, specific lack of time for training, and second, limited EBP knowledge. For instance, the nurse-patient ratio and workload are unbalanced because of the little EBP knowledge and skills. The mentoring program is inefficient because mentors have no time for teaching and training nurses. Consequently, the mentoring program should be modified to allow nurses to expand the use of EBP practices.
Overcoming Barriers
The organization should focus on schedules and training to overcome the stated barriers. Nurse schedules needed to be modified to include time away from clinical duties for initial training and then allow nurses to complete the EBP procedure (Newhouse et al., 2007). Committee members may provide training and guidance to each department that had attended initial training (Newhouse et al., 2007). Further training for employees and mentors, ongoing fellowships, and publication seminars to assist nurses in publishing the outcomes of their EBP projects will tackle the difficulties.
References
Gallagher-Ford, L., Fineout-Overholt, E., Melnyk, B. M. & Stillwell, S. B. (2011). Evidence-based practice, step by step: Implementing an evidence-based practice change. AJN, American Journal of Nursing, 111(3), 54-60. Web.
Melnyk, B. M. (2012). Achieving a high-reliability organization through implementation of the ARCC model for systemwide sustainability of the evidence-based practice. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 36(2), 127-135. Web.
Melnyk, B. M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2018). Evidence-based practice in nursing & healthcare: A guide to best practice (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.
Melnyk, B. M., Fineout-Overholt, E., Gallagher-Ford, L. & Stillwell, S. B. (2011). Evidence-based practice, step by step: Sustaining evidence-based practice through organizational policies and an innovative model. AJN, American Journal of Nursing, 111(9), 57-60. Web.
Melnyk, B. M., Fineout-Overholt, E., Giggleman, M., & Choy, K. (2017). A test of the ARCC© model improves implementation of evidence-based practice, healthcare culture, and patient outcomes. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 14(1), 5–9. Web.
Newhouse, R. P., Dearholt, S., Poe, S., Pugh, L. C. & White, K. M. (2007). Organizational change Strategies for evidence-based practice. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 37(12), 552-557. Web.