The 2008 Summer Institute on Evidence-Based Practice is dedicated to Dr. Imogene M. King.

This Institute builds capacity for healthcare providers to improve quality and safety in healthcare through translating evidence into practice. Such innovation is the cutting edge of evidence-based practice. Recognizing that gains are made through convergence of evidence, organizational climate, caregiver vitality, and change, this all-new conference explores best approaches to achieving quality & safety.

Participants will learn 'what works' in building STRONG CARE PROCESSES and STRONG CAREGIVERS. With each discussion, strategies will be underscored with evidence. Because innovation and adoption are powerful drivers in building quality and safety, we will look at 'what it takes' on the part of the organization and the innovator to move healthcare to a high level of quality & safety.

• Join our national healthcare leaders as they describe their exciting successes that build human capital and change organizations to triumph in quality & safety for patients.
• Take home a wealth of ideas for achieving excellence to move your healthcare agency to Magnet Recognition and reach national patient care goals.
• Learn from the experts about accelerating quality adoption and new resources, including AHRQ Health Care Innovations Exchange.

Designed for multiple disciplines, this conference builds on the success of the previous six Institutes. The 2008 Institute emphasizes evidence-based how-to principles in adopting improvement innovation and moving to high-reliability systems that improve patient outcomes and enhance safety in harmony with efforts such as Magnet Recognition Program, The Joint Commission. Clinicians, educators, researchers, managers and all health professionals will have opportunity to master pragmatic, foundational, and advanced evidence-based quality and safety skills, with specific emphasis on transdisciplinary strategies for practice and outcomes improvement.

The Summer Institute on EBP is a direct response to the national call for healthcare providers to bridge research and quality care by preparing our workforce to redesign health systems that are safe and effective.

During the 2 1/2 day Institute, noted EBP leaders and experts present a coordinated, interactive curriculum. Major topics include urgency of using evidence to improve clinical care, research evidence available for priority clinical conditions, innovation for quality and safety, infrastructure enhancement, and impact of EBP on selected roles within the health professions (clinician, manager, educator, and researcher). Participants will emerge with skills to evaluate and apply critical evidence and stimulate adoption of quality innovation.

The Institute is planned by clinicians, educators, researchers, librarians, managers, and administrators from multiple disciplines and from private, VA, and military healthcare agencies. The program has received repeated funding by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Special features of the 2008 Institute include:

• The Educators' EBP Workshop® for those teaching EBP
• Basics of EBP Workshop for first time attendees
• Library Skills to Locate Clinically Useful Evidence Session, back by popular demand
• Presentations of best practice projects (See Call for Abstracts at www.acestar.uthscsa.edu.)
• Graduate, Pre and Post-Doctoral Coursework (Contact Dr. Kathleen Stevens at acestar@uthscsa.edu for further information.)

This Institute will offer participants the opportunity to:

1. Develop strategies to hasten creation and adoption of innovations for improvement and safety using evidence-based and newly created resources.
2. Balance complex demands of accelerating adoption of change, system realities, and caregiver's individual capacity.
3. Access, appraise, and apply evidence such as systematic reviews, clinical practice guidelines, and EBP toolkits, for evidence-based quality improvement and safety.
4. Explore infrastructure, processes, and oversight factors necessary to create climates for safety and improvement.
5. Specify and acquire competencies needed in the healthcare workforce for expanded roles in evidence-based safety and quality improvement.
6. Design a plan to evaluate impact of evidence-based practice on patient safety and outcomes in priority health issues.

The Institute is of particular interest to the following groups:

• Clinicians, nurses, physicians, advanced practice nurses, pharmacists, librarians, all health professionals who wish to use evidence in practice
• Researchers who develop healthcare science in various disciplines
• Educators who prepare health professionals including nurses, physicians, pharmacists, dentists, and allied health clinicians for implementing quality care
• Administrators and managers who shape healthcare services through improvement innovation

top of page