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Using Nursing News “Hot off the Presses!”
Joan Edwards, RNC, MN, CNS
From Research Into Practice Using Nursing News “Hot off the Presses!”
e
Even though the time was more than 10 years ago, it still remains fresh in my mind. The question asked was, “Please explain to me why you desire to obtain a master’s degree in nursing. What do you plan to do with your degree?” Good question, right? I had several goals related to degree achievement. I believed that a master’s in nursing would open the door to a larger arena of job opportunities as I continued to practice in the profession I so dearly love. Second, I had already experienced opportunities to work oversees in the nursing profession. I strongly desired to eventually contribute more and more to the nursing care needs of developing countries around the world. Achieving a master’s degree and eventually a doctorate certainly would make me more marketable in the world professional arena. Last, I had practiced the profession long enough to realize there was a wealth of evidence-based research that was emerging in literature that hadn’t yet made its way into the practice arena. Evidence-based practice intrigued me. I wanted to play a role in “translating” that research into everyday practice. This leads me to my most recent experience with the latest and greatest research studies emerging from our diligent nursing peers and health care teams.
14
© 2006, AWHONN, the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses
Growing Nurses Who Use Research I have the great honor and privilege of uniting with other nursing educators at Texas Woman’s University’s Houston campus to “grow” some of our future nurses. The present baccalaureate class will soon be graduating and setting forth to fill positions in our hospitals, clinics, home health and hospice care (and probably many other areas in which nurses are employed). One of the courses I teach is called Leadership and Management Experience (does that bring back memories for any of you?). As we prepare our students for the professional challenges they will encounter, we include emphasis on the importance
Volume 10
Issue 1
of teamwork and the incorporation of evidence-based research in their daily practice. One of my colleagues had the excellent idea of creating an assignment that would be fun and challenging and yet accomplish a melding of teamwork and translational research. Student teams are required to develop a Web site for their fictitious “nursing unit.” Components of the Web site include but are not limited to staff education, team building, technological advances, quality and research application. Team members critique a research article applicable to their client population and then determine how they will incorporate the findings into their patient care. This past weekend, I completed reading 29 of these research critique papers, including the explanations of how the findings will be incorporated into their nursing unit practice. As an example, the teams that chose a women’s services nursing unit critiqued wonderful articles. One article explained the research findings of the predictive value of milk volume on day four for mothers of nonnursing preterm infants for continued success in milk production by week six. Because of these research findings, the students determined that their team would implement measures to maximize milk production for mothers of nonnursing premature infants, based on the findings of these researchers. She further explained what specifically would be done to assist these moms in milk production. Another student critiqued a 2005 JOGNN article on a neonatal pain assessment tool for NICU infants. She explained how the research
February | March 2006
would give her the evidence needed to bring forth a reliable and valid tool for use in assessing a population that can communicate only through physical cues. A third student had critiqued an article on mean noise levels in Level II and Level III nurseries. He gleaned from this article the importance of not bombarding our neonates with high sound intensities that can place neonates at even greater risk for hearing loss. Take-home points for implementation included assessment of their NICU departments for actual noise levels, comparison to recommendation benchmarks and implementation of a variety of interventions mentioned in the article. These are new graduates who will soon be hitting our workplaces. Am I encouraged by how these students eagerly embraced this assignment? You bet I am! Do I think they will be equipped to make a difference as they enter our profession? I am so optimistic, I could explode! Am I achieving one of my personal goals for advancing my education? Much more than I ever could have done if I were just individually “making a difference.” I’m growing hundreds of translational research nurses. As they enter the workforce, help them to “bloom!” And if you don’t have any of these nursing students coming to your work environment, don’t let that stop you. You can be the catalyst to make a difference. Start your own Web site. Initiate your own research critique work group, so that you are implementing some of the great evidence-based research coming hot off the press!
Joan E. Edwards, RNC, MN, CNS, is an assistant clinical professor at Texas Woman’s University’s Houston campus and the AWHONN 2006 President. DOI: 10.1111/j.1552-6356.2006.00007.x
AWHONN Lifelines
15
From Research Into Practice Using Nursing News “Hot off the Presses!”
e
Even though the time was more than 10 years ago, it still remains fresh in my mind. The question asked was, “Please explain to me why you desire to obtain a master’s degree in nursing. What do you plan to do with your degree?” Good question, right? I had several goals related to degree achievement. I believed that a master’s in nursing would open the door to a larger arena of job opportunities as I continued to practice in the profession I so dearly love. Second, I had already experienced opportunities to work oversees in the nursing profession. I strongly desired to eventually contribute more and more to the nursing care needs of developing countries around the world. Achieving a master’s degree and eventually a doctorate certainly would make me more marketable in the world professional arena. Last, I had practiced the profession long enough to realize there was a wealth of evidence-based research that was emerging in literature that hadn’t yet made its way into the practice arena. Evidence-based practice intrigued me. I wanted to play a role in “translating” that research into everyday practice. This leads me to my most recent experience with the latest and greatest research studies emerging from our diligent nursing peers and health care teams.
14
© 2006, AWHONN, the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses
Growing Nurses Who Use Research I have the great honor and privilege of uniting with other nursing educators at Texas Woman’s University’s Houston campus to “grow” some of our future nurses. The present baccalaureate class will soon be graduating and setting forth to fill positions in our hospitals, clinics, home health and hospice care (and probably many other areas in which nurses are employed). One of the courses I teach is called Leadership and Management Experience (does that bring back memories for any of you?). As we prepare our students for the professional challenges they will encounter, we include emphasis on the importance
Volume 10
Issue 1
of teamwork and the incorporation of evidence-based research in their daily practice. One of my colleagues had the excellent idea of creating an assignment that would be fun and challenging and yet accomplish a melding of teamwork and translational research. Student teams are required to develop a Web site for their fictitious “nursing unit.” Components of the Web site include but are not limited to staff education, team building, technological advances, quality and research application. Team members critique a research article applicable to their client population and then determine how they will incorporate the findings into their patient care. This past weekend, I completed reading 29 of these research critique papers, including the explanations of how the findings will be incorporated into their nursing unit practice. As an example, the teams that chose a women’s services nursing unit critiqued wonderful articles. One article explained the research findings of the predictive value of milk volume on day four for mothers of nonnursing preterm infants for continued success in milk production by week six. Because of these research findings, the students determined that their team would implement measures to maximize milk production for mothers of nonnursing premature infants, based on the findings of these researchers. She further explained what specifically would be done to assist these moms in milk production. Another student critiqued a 2005 JOGNN article on a neonatal pain assessment tool for NICU infants. She explained how the research
February | March 2006
would give her the evidence needed to bring forth a reliable and valid tool for use in assessing a population that can communicate only through physical cues. A third student had critiqued an article on mean noise levels in Level II and Level III nurseries. He gleaned from this article the importance of not bombarding our neonates with high sound intensities that can place neonates at even greater risk for hearing loss. Take-home points for implementation included assessment of their NICU departments for actual noise levels, comparison to recommendation benchmarks and implementation of a variety of interventions mentioned in the article. These are new graduates who will soon be hitting our workplaces. Am I encouraged by how these students eagerly embraced this assignment? You bet I am! Do I think they will be equipped to make a difference as they enter our profession? I am so optimistic, I could explode! Am I achieving one of my personal goals for advancing my education? Much more than I ever could have done if I were just individually “making a difference.” I’m growing hundreds of translational research nurses. As they enter the workforce, help them to “bloom!” And if you don’t have any of these nursing students coming to your work environment, don’t let that stop you. You can be the catalyst to make a difference. Start your own Web site. Initiate your own research critique work group, so that you are implementing some of the great evidence-based research coming hot off the press!
Joan E. Edwards, RNC, MN, CNS, is an assistant clinical professor at Texas Woman’s University’s Houston campus and the AWHONN 2006 President. DOI: 10.1111/j.1552-6356.2006.00007.x
AWHONN Lifelines
15