To the clinical practitioner both nursing models and nursing research may currently be highly valued by practitioners or managers. Yet, by facilitating group reflection on the nursing model identified in the ward philosophy and adopting the enhancement approach to action research, surgical nurses were empowered to effect change and, consequently, to enhance the quality of patient care in their ward. The study was undertaken in two phases over a 15-month period and utilized a multi-method approach. In phase 1 triangulation of the data enabled the practitioners/co-researchers to identify and reflect on patients' psychological needs within the independence/dependence continuum of the Roper et al. (1990) model. Phase 2 involved a collaborative approach to the planning, implementation and evaluation of innovations which resulted from reflection on practice. Nurse-doctor relationships including anaesthetist noncompliance were, though, a controversial issue. Collaborative practice was undermined by the co-researchers' ambivalence concerning feedback from the medical staff. Overall, however, the individual contribution of each co-researcher was recognized and valued. They had both choice and control which enabled them to develop personally and professionally. Group reflection was seen as essential feedback strategy during the change process.
Multiple routes are proposed within the nursing and healthcare literature for implementing traditional and reflexive research evidence into practice. Knowledge transfer is a relatively new field of inquiry, which, as both a process and a strategy, can lead to the utilisation of research findings and improved outcomes for patients. Nurse leaders and the public have recognised the need to ensure that evidence-based practice is introduced expeditiously. Nurses working at an advanced level of practice, such as consultant nurses, use all forms of knowledge in sophisticated ways to lead the integration of research findings into diverse practice settings. Within healthcare organisations evidence-based practice is far more likely to occur when it is linked to implementing healthcare policy in practice. The current international, collaborative knowledge transfer research agenda includes the need to learn if knowledge transfer programmes, structures, frameworks and theories are working, and if not, why not. The knowledge transfer process is illustrated by consultant nurses using the knowledge-to-action framework to underpin two recent UK policy examples: safeguarding vulnerable adults and the prevention of Clostridium difficile. For the future, clinical academic partnerships are required to foster a culture of evidence-based practice through practical engagement, and the sharing of nursing knowledge and expertise in a systematic way, both to improve patient care and address the current research—practice gap.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.