The Helene Fuld Health Trust National Institute for Evidence-based Practice (EBP) in Nursing and Healthcare funded five awards in 2020.

The funding was awarded for one research study to Daiwai Olson, PhD, RN, CCRN, FNCS of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center; and four EBP initiatives to Donna Bond, DNP, RN-CNS from Carilion Clinic in Virginia; Lisa Jasin, NNP of Dayton Children’s Hospital in Ohio; Gail Sprigler, DNP, RN of Robley Rex Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Kentucky; and Jamie Vano, AGNP-C, NP of Atrium Health in North Carolina.

Olson of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center was awarded funding for his research study titled Ex-Vivo Models of Longitudinal External Ventricular Drain (EVD) Management to Explore Intracranial Dynamics. The EVOLVED study will create a non-living model to study the dynamic variables associated with intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring. This project is based on the nursing Cue-Response Theory in which the timing of nursing interventions is equally important to the performance of nursing interventions.

“After two-decades of studying intracranial pressure monitoring in humans, this [funding] from the Fuld Institute for EBP provides our team with the ability to create an ex-vivo model that will allow us to ask questions that are simply not safe to ask in critically ill patients,” said Olson.

Because traditional clinical research in ICP management involves critically ill patients, it is often unethical to manipulate variables that could cause harm. This explains why most ICP studies are observational.

Olson says the EVOLVED study will develop a new model to study ICP management outside the body in a laboratory environment where they can manipulate conditions to test hypotheses that have not yet been tested.

Jasin of Dayton Children’s Hospital was awarded funding for an EBP initiative titled, Implementation of Family Integrated Care in the NICU. The project works to increase family involvement in care while helping decrease stress.

Families participating in family integrated care provide the nonmedical care for their child and can present on multidisciplinary rounds. The nurse acts as a teacher and facilitator of the infant’s care. They will use the four pillars of the FiCare model, which are staff education and support, parent education, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) environment and psychosocial support with veteran parents.  

Family integrated care will be implemented using quality improvement methodology with small tests of change. Implementation will be evaluated in real time and with ongoing evaluation. Jasin expects to see outcomes such as increases in confidence and trust in nurses and communication with providers and decreases in length of stay for families.

“The funding from the Fuld Institute for EBP means that we can provide our families with tools that will last a lifetime for the babies they are caring for,” said Jasin. “It makes me so happy to have the opportunity to implement an EBP project and maximize our sustainment capability.”

Bond of the Carilion Clinic received funding for her project, Respiratory Rate Assessment grounded in Evidence-based Practice. Bond and her team’s goal for this evidence-based practice initiative is to improve documentation of respiratory rates by changing an ingrained practice related to the collection of this vital sign. Respiratory rate is not commonly counted correctly and is the least documented vital sign.

In her project, Bond and her team will be correctly documenting respiratory rates and analyzing the changes in these trends. This work will yield a model for other organizations to use in order to implement best practices for respiratory rate assessment.

During her work on this project, Bond has become aware of the value of accurate respiratory rate count and the consequences of inadequate counting. “I believe that some healthcare providers may not value the importance of the respiratory rate, which may be influenced by a perception that it is not accurately recorded,” said Bond. Her team hopes to change the way respiratory rate count has been performed and documented.
Bond said she is ‘over the moon’ about this opportunity and hopes to be able to explore new methods to improve respiratory rate counting on medical surgical units across healthcare.

Sprigler of Robley Rex Veterans Affairs Medical Center was awarded funding for her EBP project titled, Implementation of an Educational ‘Boot Camp’ to Increase Nurses’ Confidence, Knowledge and Use of Evidence-based Practice in Veterans Affairs Medical Centers. Sprigler will use the funding to implement an Evidence-based Practice Boot Camp for staff nurses, which was found to be effective in increasing both confidence in and knowledge about EBP.

This project is designed to increase confidence, knowledge and the use of EBP by staff nurses through the implementation of an intense, multi-site EBP Boot Camp, using a train-the-trainer model. The participating facilities will be linked through a virtual learning environment and learning management system to allow for networking and collaboration throughout the program. In addition to virtual course sessions, the existing face-to-face EBP Boot Camp at the primary site will be open to the other medical centers as an option to complete part of the train-the-trainer program.

“This funding opportunity will allow our organization to continue to strengthen and evaluate the effectiveness of our EBP Boot Camp program and to expand the program to other VA Medical Centers in our two-state network,” said Sprigler.

Vano of Atrium Health and her team received funding for their initiative titled, Overactive Bladder Interactive Pathway to Improve Patient Outcomes. The interactive pathway will allow patients suffering from an overactive bladder to readily access the different lines of treatments available and expected timeframes for improvement, which can be overwhelming when first introduced. Vano’s goal is to gauge improvement of patient engagement, progression of care and compliance.

“We talked about doing the project for years, but it is now becoming a reality for our patients with such embarrassing symptoms that negatively impact quality of life,” stated Vano. She is ecstatic to be able to implement and share her team’s project with the world of medicine. “My excitement is building to the evidence-based practice summit to have the opportunity to further my own knowledge and confidence in improving healthcare quality and outcomes,” said Vano.