Second Annual
2003 Summer Institute on Evidence-Based Practice 
Best Practice: Improving Quality

Overview

The Institute prepares healthcare professionals for an increasingly active role in evidence-based practice (EBP) to translate research into practice and improve patient care outcomes. With the quality of care, cost control, and patient outcomes as national concerns, providers can maximize clinical effectiveness through fuller use of scientific evidence in practice. The overall goal of this Institute is to build skills for integrating evidence-based practice for quality care.

The 2003 Institute focuses on "Best Practice-Improving Quality," and emphasizes strategies to achieve quality in healthcare. Nurses, physicians, pharmacists, administrators, educators, and researchers will be equipped to engage in an active role in evidence-based practice and will develop strategies for taking evidence to the bedside.

During the 2 1/2-day Institute, noted EBP experts will present a coordinated curriculum. Major topics will include "crossing the quality chasm," finding and implementing clinical practice guidelines, changing practice with evidence, and evaluating impact. Participants will explore specific clinical topics and case studies in smaller sessions to build skills in producing evidence-based improvements and increasing the healthcare team’s capacity to integrate EBP in their institution.

Throughout the conference, participants will have opportunities to interact; browse exhibits of guidelines, tool kits, and reference management software; and review poster presentations from across the nation. Opportunities are offered for participants to present their own EBP activities through selected poster and oral abstract presentations.

The Institute also includes these special opportunities:

Presentations of best practice projects
(See CALL FOR ABSTRACTS)
Pre- and Post-Masters, Pre- and Post-Doctoral Coursework

The program is planned in conjunction with clinicians, educators, researchers, and administrators from multiple disciplines and from private, VA, and military healthcare agencies.

Objectives

Participants will have an opportunity to:

  1. Describe the impetus for using evidence to cross the quality chasm in healthcare.
  2. Adopt a model that guides evidence-based practice (EBP) in one’s own clinical setting.
  3. Specify elements needed to implement and evaluate agency-specific clinical practice guidelines in the clinical setting.
  4. Design strategies for taking evidence to the bedside.
  5. Describe EBP at various levels of the healthcare system: patient, provider, healthcare system, and organization.
  6. Identify how to "make the best way the easiest way" through locating, developing, and implementing EBP clinical practice guidelines and toolkits.
  7. Define emerging EBP competencies expected in your role.
  8. Develop strategies for establishing an EBP team in one’s own setting.

Who Should Attend

The Institute is of particular interest to the following groups:

  • Nurse clinicians, physicians, advanced practice nurses, and pharmacists who wish to use evidence in practice
  • Researchers who represent the science of the various disciplines
  • Educators who prepare advanced practice nurses, physicians, or pharmacists for implementing quality care
  • Administrators and quality managers who shape healthcare services