Nancy Edwards Projects
The Emergence of Evidence-informed Nursing Service Delivery Models and Their Uptake Within the Health Care System
The aims of this research program are to examine the emergence of Evidence-informed Nursing Service Delivery Models (ENSDM) and their uptake within the health care system. We define an ENSDM as a transformative model for health services delivery that crosses health care sectors, involves multiple strategies, engages decision-makers (organizational, regional) in supporting implementation and is primarily delivered by or involves the work of nurses. It entails the proactive use of evidence-informed implementation strategies both within and between organizations so as to enhance the rapid uptake of nursing clinical practice guidelines by practitioners and organizations.
Program objectives are to understand how an evidence-informed change model develops in the health care system; to describe how ENSDMs diffuse across the health care system and what they cost; and to examine factors that support, sustain and impede intra-and inter-organizational systems change. The research platform for this research program is the ongoing RNAO Nursing Best Practice Guidelines (BPG) initiative, which began in Ontario in 1999 and has expanded to several other provinces in Canada and to other countries. The BPG initiative is funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care (MOHLTC) on a multi-year basis. Change models of national interest are emerging from the RNAO Initiative.
Potential contribution to policy and decision-making: Decision-makers in health care service delivery organizations, regional health authorities (LIHNs in Ontario) and government must have information on the cost of new service delivery models, the means by which successful models can be more rapidly deployed throughout the health care system, the features of successful models, and variations in these models that better fit the contextual realities of delivering services across sectors (acute, long-term and community care) and in differing geographic environments (e.g. urban versus rural). However, this information is often lacking. This program of research addresses some of these key necessities, by examining a natural “experiment” of a change process. Information: Dr. Nancy Edwards