Vickie's Research Corner

View my guestbookCan you believe it? Fall is here and the weather is changing. Things at St. Joseph are changing just like the seasons and the new buzz word is Evidence-Based Practice (EBP). As we continue in our journey as a Magnet organization, EBP is pushing its way into the practice of nurses throughout the hospital. Over the past year I have begun to introduce you to our new Clinical Nurse EBP Experts. These are Clinical Nurse III/IV nurses who took an intensive 4 day class to become more familiar with EBP and how this impacts their practice as well as yours. This issue I would like to introduce you to Rashna Thakur and Ellen Gruwell.
Rashna is Clinical Nurse III and works in the Pediatric Renal Center. She has been at this hospital since 1996. She became a Clin III 2 years ago. When asked why she wanted to become an EBP expert she responded that she had no clue what a Clinical Nurse EBP Expert initially was and was encouraged by Ann Marie Keefer-Lynch to apply for the program. Initially when taking the course she felt a rookie in the crowd because everyone else knew about EBP. After taking the course she realized that EBP was great. Knowledge was eye opening! She learned what EBP is and who does it. She now understands how to look for research and apply EBP at the bedside. Rashna feels much more aware of evidence and how we use it. She now makes changes in her practice based on evidence, not tradition.
Taking the class encouraged her to accomplish several goals. Now nurses are cross-training from primarily pediatrics to adults and she helped create the new policy based on EBP. She was able to take what she learned and put it into practice. Rashna was no longer the rookie in the crowd who didn’t understand EBP!
Our second Clinical Expert is Ellen Gruwell. She has been a nurse in the St. Joseph Health system since 1981. Initially she worked for St. Jude and then in 1987 came to SJH. Currently she works in Labor and Delivery as a Clinical Nurse III. Ellen felt that her masters program at California State University Fullerton and meeting Dana Rutledge made the biggest difference in her life for wanting to learn more about EBP and Research, so she decided to become a Clinical Expert.
For Ellen, she learned that there is a lot of buy in for EBP from nursing. It seems that since she has become an expert she is getting the “lingo” out there and the nurses are starting to change their practice and base their decisions on EBP. Her own practice has changed significantly because she is now more excited about potential research that can be done in Women’s Health Services. She feels nursing is a science and needs to be based in science!
She is now looking at car seats a late preterm infant safety when they go home. She is also interested in identifying how nurses cope in labor and delivery.
Both nurses were from very different areas but both were changed by the world of evidence-based practice and both are changing practice at the bedside!