Exploring the contribution of the Clinical Librarian to facilitating evidence-based nursing

Aim. To examine the potential role of the Clinical Librarian in facilitating evidence‐based practice of nurses in acute hospital settings and develop a model for the role. Background. There is a growing policy and professional expectation that nurses will seek out and apply evidence in their clinical practice. Studies have demonstrated that nurses experience barriers in working with an evidence‐based approach. The role of Clinical Librarian has been used in other countries and within medicine to overcome some of the barriers to evidence‐based practice. There are limitations in the previous work in terms of rigour of evaluation, scope of the Clinical Librarian role and application to nursing in a UK setting. Design. A qualitative consultation of 72 nurses in acute care settings. Methods. Six consultation group interviews of between 4–19 participants. Written records were recorded by the scribe. Content analysis was undertaken to identify the range and frequency of comments. Results. Clinical questions currently go unanswered because of barriers of time, skills deficits and access to resources. Literature searching, skills training and evidence dissemination were the main areas of work the staff requested that a Clinical Librarian should undertake. It was anticipated that the Clinical Librarian could interact and work productively with nursing staff with a limited but regular presence on the ward. Interim communication could be via e‐mail, phone and written suggestions and requests for work. It was seen to be vital that the Clinical Librarian worked in partnership with staff to build evidence‐based practice capacity and ensure clinical relevance of the work. Conclusions. This study has generated the first model for the Clinical Librarian role with an emphasis on nursing. It is derived from the views of clinical nurses. Recommendations are made for the implementation and evaluation of such a role. Relevance to clinical practice. The Clinical Librarian could be an invaluable support to promoting evidence‐based nursing.     

Specialist educational intervention for mental health nursing staff: delivery, content and personal impact

AIM: This paper reports a study to ascertain the views of acute ward-based mental health nursing staff on the delivery, content and personal impact of an innovative 18-day, whole team educational intervention in acute mental health care. BACKGROUND: There are grave concerns internationally about the quality of inpatient mental health care for people with acute psychiatric problems. Educational courses are needed to improve these services. However, existing schemes are often selective, hard to access and limited to developing highly specialist skills for senior nurses. They have also been criticized for making no difference to clinical practice. There is little evidence to guide the development of these or alternative team-based courses. METHOD: Qualitative data were collected over a 6-week period using 12 focus group interviews and individual questionnaires. RESULTS: Four themes were identified. The joint education of nursing staff from different organizations was welcomed and reduced feelings of ward isolation. Mixing qualified and unqualified staff was not regarded positively. In terms of course content and learning themes, unqualified staff were more likely to report positive learning outcomes for knowledge, skills, attitude, morale and personal development; qualified nurses were more likely to indicate positive outcomes in anonymized data from questionnaires than from focus groups. Both groups reported little chance of knowledge implementation without changes in the organization of care. CONCLUSION: Whilst it may be desirable to educate whole nursing teams, more benefit might be gained from shared education between several organizations and separating the education of qualified and unqualified staff before combining these groups in team education. Participants remained pessimistic about their chances of implementing new knowledge and skills in current acute inpatient mental health environments.     

Clinical coaching: a strategy for enhancing evidence-based nursing practice

PURPOSE: The purpose of this article is to describe how clinical nurse specialists can promote the development of knowledge and skills in nurses as one step toward making evidence-based nursing practice the norm in all patient care settings. BACKGROUND: The need for the use of evidence in nursing practice has been highlighted for several decades. Moving evidence more quickly into practice requires that nursing use many strategies. DESCRIPTION OF STRATEGY: The strategy of clinical coaching is proposed in this article for the development of skills in nurses specifically to promote evidence-based nursing practice. Clinical coaching is a relationship for the purpose of building skills. This strategy is aimed at increasing foundational staff nurse knowledge and skills. CONCLUSION: The achievement and maintenance of evidence-based nursing practice take continuous attention from clinical nurse specialists. Clinical coaching is only one part of a comprehensive approach for establishing and sustaining evidence-based nursing practice.     

"循证"冠名的中国护理文献发表现状分析

目的通过对中国近年来发表的循证护理文献进行回顾调查,探析“循证”冠名的中国护理文献发表现状及中国护理人员开展循证护理时存在的问题和难点。方法检索中国科技期刊数据库2000～2006年初6种中文护理期刊,对其以“循证”冠名的中国护理文献进行分类和分析。结果①循证护理研究类型正从理论探讨向临床应用转化。②90.9%的临床研究文献没有说明检索证据的路径与策略,63.6%没有说明所遵循的研究证据的来源途径。③93.9%未说明研究证据的质量等级,运用SR及RCT研究结果指导临床实践的仅占6.1%。④72.7%缺乏有效方法评价循证护理的实际效果。结论“循证”冠名的中国护理文献的内涵质量有待提高,中国护士需要学习更多的有关循证实践的知识与技能,以促进临床护理实践,并提高循证相关的护理研究文献的质量。     

Bibliometrics,citation indexing,and the journals of nursing

Bibliometric research has risen in popularity during recent years and an increasing number of investigations now have examined the nursing literature. Our article provides a comprehensive overview of citation‐based research in the nursing profession, as well as a discussion of bibliometrics, journal impact factors, and international publishing trends. The debate on evidence‐based practice and its potential influence and relevance for nursing scholars is also covered. Although journal performance indicators are, no doubt, important for the contemporary nursing academic, it is the core research skills and attributes that nursing scholars, academics, and educators will need to consider more carefully in future if the next generation of professional nurse researchers is to truly flourish.     

Value of implementation science and hybrid implementation research designs for nursing education research: A discussion paper

IntroductionNursing education research is complex and contextualized. The evaluation and impact of educational innovations on students, educators, and educational outcomes are influenced by the complexity of environments. Most interventional research in nursing is designed and implemented without considering the behavioral and contextual issues affecting educational innovations, uptake and change processes, and outcomes. Implementation science has emerged as a valuable methodology for designing and conducting interventional research that has the potential to translate evidence and innovations quickly into practice.PurposeThis paper aims to explore the value of implementation science theories, models, and frameworks and hybrid designs for interventional nursing education research and illustrate how these can be used in nursing education research.MethodsA brief overview of implementation science, the various types of theories, models and frameworks and Hybrid designs are provided. Illustrative examples demonstrating the incorporation of these methodologies in interventional nursing education research are provided.ResultsA brief overview of implementation and its key concepts namely context, implementation strategies, fidelity, outcomes, adaptation, and sustainability is provided. Three types of hybrid designs are discussed with examples in nursing education research.DiscussionThe implications of implementation science for nursing education research are: a) Accelerating uptake of innovations to improve educational outcomes, b) targeting systematic change in individual and organizational behaviour and c) ensuring the sustainability of teaching and learning innovations.ConclusionIncorporating implementation science in nursing education research can optimize the uptake of educational innovations in practice in a sustainable manner. Nurse educators should equip themselves with implementation science skills and develop competencies to enhance the delivery of effective and quality nursing education.     

Qualitative and quantitative approaches in mental health nursing: moving the debate forward

In recent years, two distinct, and apparently opposing, positions have arisen in debates concerned with mental health nursing research, education and practice. Each of the two has its champions and 'gurus', and its detractors. Writers associated with the quantitative camp have argued in favour of: experimental research where the aims are the investigation of the outcomes of nursing care; multidisciplinary rather than unidisciplinary research; a physiological explanation for mental illness; clinical practice which is evidence based, and skills based education. Qualitative camp writers, on the other hand, have argued for: qualitative research to explore the experiences of illness, and of nursing; the preservation of nursing-only research; the relative irrelevance of physical explanations of mental illness, and holistic nursing practice in which clinical techniques are less important than interpersonal relationships. In this paper, we first review and criticize some key ideas associated with these two positions. In our subsequent analysis, we argue that, rather than differing at some fundamental level, the differences found between the two camps may be more a matter of emphasis. The possibilities of reconciliation and synthesis are, finally, presented and discussed.     

How can we maximize nursing students’ learning about research evidence and utilization in undergraduate,preregistration programmes? A discussion paper

Aim. This article presents a discussion on how to maximize nursing students’ learning about research for evidence‐based practice in undergraduate, preregistration programmes. Background. Evidence‐based practice may use information from many sources, including research. Research utilization concerns the translation of research findings into practice. Thus, while evidence‐base practice may not be solely research‐based and hence more than research utilization, research remains an important ingredient in ensuring quality and cost‐effective care and an academic requirement for nursing students undertaking a science degree‐level qualification. Nevertheless, how educators can best support research‐related learning and application remains uncertain and requires discussion. Data sources. MEDLINE, CINAHL, Social Science Citation Index, British Nursing Index, and Intute were searched for papers published 1980–2011 using the following search terms: research, research utilization, evidence‐based practice, learning, teaching, education, training, nursing, health, and social care. Discussion. Nursing students need to be able to value the relevance, authority, and utility of nursing research for patient care through embedding research learning in both academic and practice‐based settings. Students can be supported in learning how to access, understand, and appraise the authority of research through weaving these skills into enquiry‐based learning. Furthermore, encouraging students to undertake research‐based practice change projects can support research utilization and development skills. Conclusion. Research should be fully embedded throughout nursing curricula beyond the confines of ‘research classes’, integrating learning in academic and practice‐based settings. Although this requires synergistic and integrated support of student learning by nurse educators, managers, clinical practitioners, researchers and policymakers; nurse educators have a pivotal role.     

Nursing and competencies - a natural fit: the politics of skill /competency formation in nursing

WINDSOR C, DOUGLAS C and HARVEY T. Nursing Inquiry 2012; 19: 213-222 Nursing and competencies - a natural fit: the politics of skill/competency formation in nursing The last two decades have seen a significant restructuring of work across Australia and other industrialised economies, a critical part of which has been the appearance of competency based education and assessment. The competency movement is about creating a more flexible and mobile labour force to increase productivity and it does so by redefining work as a set of transferable or 'soft' generic skills that is transportable and is the possession of the individual. This article sought to develop an analysis of competency based clinical assessment of nursing students across a bachelor of nursing degree course. This involved an examination of a total of 406 clinical assessment tools that covered the years 1992-2009 and the three years of a bachelor degree. Data analysis generated three analytical findings: the existence of a hierarchy of competencies that prioritises soft skills over intellectual and technical skills; the appearance of skills as personal qualities or individual attributes; and the absence of context in assessment. The article argues that the convergence in nursing of soft skills and the professionalisation project reform has seen the former give legitimacy to the enduring invisibility and devaluation of nursing work.