title: Using theory and evidence to drive measurement of patient, nurse and organizational outcomes of professional nursing practice.
abstract: An evolving body of literature suggests that the implementation of evidence based clinical and professional guidelines and strategies can improve patient care. However, gaps exist in our understanding of the effect of implementation of guidelines on outcomes, particularly patient outcomes. To address this gap, a measurement framework was developed to assess the impact of an organization-wide implementation of two nursing-centric best-practice guidelines on patient, nurse and organizational level outcomes. From an implementation standpoint, we anticipate that our data will show improvements in the following: (i) patient satisfaction scores and safety outcomes; (ii) nurses ability to value and engage in evidence based practice; and (iii) organizational support for evidence-informed nursing care that results in quality patient outcomes. Our measurement framework and multifaceted methodological approach outlined in this paper might serve as a blueprint for other organizations in their efforts to evaluate the impacts associated with implementation of clinical and professional guidelines and best practices.
authors.affiliation: Keenan Research Centre of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's, Canada. jeffsl@smh.ca
authors.forename: Lianne
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jeffs
authors.forename: Souraya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sidani
authors.forename: Donald
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rose
authors.forename: Sherry
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Espin
authors.forename: Orla
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Kirsten
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Charlie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Byer
authors.forename: Kaiyan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Ella
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ferris
mesh_terms: D055318:Evidence-Based Nursing; D009726:Nurses; D009742:Nursing Theory; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D061214:Patient Safety; D010361:Patients