Enhancing the Sustainability of EBP Initiatives
Evidence-based practice initiatives are an important competency component in healthcare setting. They are formulated from a combination of clinical expertise, patient preference, best research evidence, and information from the practice context. Infection control is one of the major EBP initiatives put in daily practice in Midwest hospital. Patient AO came to the hospital with chronic hypertension. In light of this COVID-19 pandemic, it is paramount to wear personal protective clothing when dealing with all patients regardless of their presenting complaints. Therefore, precautions against the spread of the virus such as disinfection of beds, beddings, and the whole ward in general were done daily. Hand-washing technique was demonstrated to the patient. The patient was treated for a week and was discharged in a healthy condition despite there being coronavirus patients in the same hospital. The rationale was to prevent the spread of the silent virus to other patients in the facility by utilizing the four sources of research used in EBP in making decisions. Therefore, in this case, the initiative policies were successful in controlling the infection.
The use of EBP change models has been reported to mentor and assist individual EBP project teams. The change curve model is used commonly and has four stages. It emphasizes basic assumptions for organizational change. The first stage is stagnation where leadership is lacking, initiatives failing and resources are few. Stage 2 is a preparation where the emotional climate is one of anxiety, hopefulness, or reduced productivity. Team members get excited about the vision. Stage 3 is implementation whereby leaders must assess the readiness and confidence of team members in making the change a success. The last stage is determination where members may experience change fatigue if results are not apparent the advantage is the ability to create small success along the way to change. In Midwest hospital, this model enhances the sustainability of infection control practices by enabling leadership to implement urgent changes warranted by the sudden pandemic.
References
Lunenburg, F. C. (2010). Approaches to managing organizational change. International journal of scholarly academic intellectual diversity, 12(1), 1-10.
Melnyk, B. M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (Eds.). (2011). Evidence-based practice in nursing & healthcare: A guide to best practice. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Schaffer, M. A., Sandau, K. E., & Diedrick, L. (2013). Evidence‐based practice models for organizational change: overview and practical applications. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 69(5), 1197-1209.