Nursing Experts: Translating the Evidence Phase 3 NExT3

Since 2001, the University of Illinois at Chicagos Library of the Health Sciences and the College of Nursing have been engaged in a series of evidence-based education programs targeted to public health nurses. These programs have expanded and built upon each other and used partnerships and connections towards providing equal access to biomedical information to all U.S. health professionals and the use of scientific evidence to guide healthcare decision making. The need for educational opportunities persists, however, according to a 2012 report in which the University of Michigan found that approximately 64% of public health RNs agreed that they would like more opportunities for training and professional development.1 In phases one and two, the Nursing Experts: Translating the Evidence NExT project continued our long tradition of enhancing professional practice by educating public health nurses on where to find free and reliable government resources, how to successfully use them for their specific information needs, and how to translate the information into practice.2 Survey data from the NExT project indicates that 68% of participants in the online course would like additional educational opportunities from the NExT team. In addition, the American Nurses Credentialing Center ANCC Magnet Recognition Program requires hospitals to use evidence-based practice EBP in nursing. Nurses need to document and demonstrate that they engage in research and implement EBP to enhance healthcare quality, improve patient outcomes, and reduce costs. However, despite the explosion of scientific evidence, evidence-based care is not standard of care. Recent surveys of magnet facilities and acute/ambulatory care nurses found low rates of EBP implementation in U.S. health care settings and nurses with insufficient knowledge to meet any of the 24 defined EBP competencies.3,4 Building on the success of our initial phases, in the third phase of this project, the NExT team has four objectives: 1 Expand the online NExT module website to include evidence-based practice content applicable to acute and ambulatory care nurses while continuing outreach to public health nurses, 2 provide Continuing Education Units CEUs for practicing acute/ambulatory care and public health nurses, 3 assure completed content meets responsive design best practices, adjusting to various screen sizes on mobile devices, tablets and computers from multiple manufacturers, and 4 promote the online materials to increase awareness and use by all nurses. Without interruption, UIC has continued its support of the materials created since 2001 and will continue to support the online NExT portal at http://phnext.uic.edu.