ABSTRACT
Nurses and allied health professionals have the unique opportunity to become empowered through evidence-based practice (EBP) to make significant differences in the lives of patients and their families. Best practices in patient care occur only when staff continually ask questions about treatments and care, search for and evaluate the evidence to support or refute traditional practices, implement best evidence, and evaluate the effectiveness of the evidence as it applies to nursing care. This article presents the establishment of a formal program to teach EBP skills to pediatric nurses and other health care providers at a major children's hospital.
Subject(s)
Evidence-Based Medicine/education , Inservice Training/methods , Nursing Staff, Hospital/education , Curriculum , Humans , Inservice Training/organization & administration , Organizational Culture , Program Development , TexasABSTRACT
There is increasing effort in promoting evidence-based practice (EBP) that supports the best possible care to patients and families. This article describes essential concepts for developing an environment of EBP and its implementation at a large pediatric hospital. Essential components for creating an EBP environment include vision, engagement, integration, and evaluation. An institutional initiative to decrease procedure-related pain demonstrates how EBP is used to improve clinical care.
ABSTRACT
There is increasing effort in promoting evidence-based practice (EBP) that supports the best possible care to patients and families. This article describes essential concepts for developing an environment of EBP and its implementation at a large pediatric hospital. Essential components for creating an EBP environment include vision, engagement, integration, and evaluation. An institutional initiative to decrease procedure-related pain demonstrates how EBP is used to improve clinical care.
Subject(s)
Diffusion of Innovation , Evidence-Based Medicine/organization & administration , Health Facility Environment/organization & administration , Hospitals, Pediatric/organization & administration , Nursing Research/organization & administration , Efficiency, Organizational , Evidence-Based Medicine/education , Humans , Models, Nursing , Models, Organizational , Nursing Research/education , Nursing Staff, Hospital/education , Nursing Staff, Hospital/organization & administration , Nursing Staff, Hospital/psychology , Organizational Culture , Organizational Objectives , Outcome Assessment, Health Care/organization & administration , Pain/diagnosis , Pain/etiology , Pain/prevention & control , Patient-Centered Care/organization & administration , Pediatric Nursing/education , Pediatric Nursing/organization & administration , Phlebotomy/adverse effects , Professional Competence , Program Evaluation , Quality Assurance, Health Care/organization & administration , TexasABSTRACT
A commonly stated reason for dissatisfaction among nurses is that their input regarding patient care and suggestions for improvement in the workplace environment are not solicited or recognized. Nurses can have an active voice in their practice by using the five steps for implementing EBP and being involved in the process of EBP within the work setting. Pediatric nurses have the unique opportunity to become empowered and make a significant difference in their patients' and family's lives by continually asking questions about treatments and care, searching for and evaluating the evidence to support or refute traditional practices, implementing best practice, and evaluating the effectiveness of the evidence as it applies to nursing practice.
Subject(s)
Evidence-Based Medicine/methods , Hospitals, Pediatric , Pediatric Nursing/methods , Staff Development/methods , Child , Evidence-Based Medicine/organization & administration , Humans , Information Services , Information Storage and Retrieval , Internet , Review Literature as TopicABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to develop and test three instruments to measure fatigue in children with cancer from the perspectives of the child, parents and staff. The study consisted of three phases: instrument development, content validation, and estimations of psychometric properties of the three fatigue instruments. One hundred forty-nine children between the ages of 7-12 years presently receiving chemotherapy for cancer, 147 parents and 124 staff participated in this study. The instruments demonstrated strong initial validity and reliability estimates. This study is the first to provide valid and reliable instruments to measure fatigue in children with cancer.
Subject(s)
Fatigue/diagnosis , Fatigue/etiology , Medical Staff , Neoplasms/complications , Parents , Child , Female , Humans , Male , Reproducibility of Results , Severity of Illness IndexABSTRACT
Anemia is a hematologic abnormality commonly discussed during the treatment of childhood cancer, but its incidence has not been previously reported. As the basis for determining the incidence of anemia, this retrospective review of medical records combined databases containing the records of all patients 1 to 18 years of age with newly diagnosed neuroblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, Hodgkin disease, Ewing sarcoma, or osteosarcoma from two pediatric oncology centers. Data from 405 patients were included in the analysis of hemoglobin at the time of diagnosis. Across diagnoses, 51% to 74% of patients were anemic using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention age- and sex-specific values to define anemia. The long-term complications of anemia in children with cancer are unknown. Further investigation of the clinical significance of anemia, including its impact on quality of life, is warranted.
