May 29, 2017: Our Professional Practice Model would just be a nice idea if it wasn’t grounded in Evidence-Based Practice (EBB), Research and Innovation. Florence Nightingale understood the importance of using evidence to guide nursing practice back in the 1850s. She was an avid statistician and pioneered the development of survey instruments, used experts to guide patient care, and worked to make her findings easy for others to understand and apply. Today our Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital Intranet Library contains a wealth of resources at our fingertips to help guide our practice. We are able to perform literature searches using CINAHL Complete EBSCO, use Up-To-Date to guide patient care, refer to clinical practice guidelines, review Elsevier clinical skills and use CE Direct to increase our knowledge. Our recent work to reduce hospital acquired clostridium difficile is evidence-based and has led to improved patient outcomes. The average cost for each hospital acquired C. diff case is $11,285. Using EBP to improve patient safety and outcomes has led to an innovative algorithm, the use of yogurt and probiotics to keep our patients free of C. diff. A new project to improve antibiotic stewardship is now underway to continue to improve patient safety and ensure that each patient receives the right care at the right time.
-Janet Leatherwood, CNO