Do you ever wonder why nurses engage in practices that aren’t supported by evidence, while not implementing practices substantiated by a lot of evidence? In the past, nurses changed hospitalized patients’ IV dressings daily, even though no solid evidence supported this practice. When clinical trials finally explored how often to change IV dressings, results indicated that daily changes led to higher rates of phlebitis than did less frequent changes.

That’s the beginning of the first article in our first “step by step” series, Evidence-Based Practice, Step by Step, launched in November 2009. It won the Nursing Print Media Award for Nursing Excellence from Sigma Theta Tau International; the 12 articles in the series continue to be among the most highly viewed of any AJN articles online.

Nurses know about EBP, but changing practice is another thing.

The continued popularity of the articles made us wonder if the tenets of EBP were still not adequately known by nurses. So we asked the experts, and the result is our new series, EBP 2.0: Implementing and Sustaining Change.

Sharon Tucker, PhD, RN, FAAN, and Lynn Gallagher-Ford, PhD, RN, NE-BC, DPFNAP, FAAN, both  at the Helene Fuld Health Trust National Institute for Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing and Healthcare at the Ohio State University College of Nursing in Columbus, said they found that while nurses know about EBP, they often get stuck in making the change happen and making it “stick” over the long term. These acknowledged experts will be coauthoring the series. The first article, “EBP 2.0: From Strategy to Implementation,” appears in our April issue.

Focusing on the why/how/what of implementation.

This new series will cover strategies to address such topics as the following:

  • organizational culture
  • leadership structure and support
  • EBP resources
  • patient populations and settings
  • technical and data needs
  • educational needs
  • reminders and reinforcement
  • mentors and champions
  • QI tools
  • data trending

Articles will also include exemplars cowritten by nurses who have rolled out practice changes in their institutions. We asked them to describe the ‘why/how/what’ of they did and where the ‘potholes’ were and how they dealt with them.

Free webinar on implementing and sustaining EBP.

To kick off the series, we are hosting a free webinar, April 23, from 2–3pm EDT. The series authors will describe their approach to changing practice and “making change stick” over the long term. They will also answer participant questions.

We hope you find this new series as valuable as its predecessor. Be sure to let us know.