Background: The knowledge into action model for NHS Scotland provides a framework for librarians and health care staff to support getting evidence into practice. Central to this model is the development of a network of knowledge brokers to facilitate identification, use, creation and sharing of knowledge. Objective: To translate the concepts described in the model into tangible activities with the intention of supporting better use of evidence in health care and subsequently improving patient outcomes. Methods: Four areas of activity were addressed by small working groups comprising knowledge services staff in local and national boards. The areas of activity were as follows: defining existing and required capabilities and developing learning opportunities for the knowledge broker network; establishing national search and summarising services; developing actionable knowledge tools; and supporting person-to-person knowledge sharing. Conclusion: This work presents the development of practical tools and support to translate a conceptual model for getting knowledge into action into a series of activities and outputs to support better use of evidence in health care and subsequently improved patient outcomes.
The use of intranets as knowledge management tools in the NHS has been applied with varying success. This study set out to evaluate the effectiveness of the NHS Lanarkshire intranet site FirstPort as a knowledge management tool and to capture opinions on what would be required of a new FirstPort 2 site to be launched in the summer of 2012.
Although health care is encouraged to follow an evidence-based approach, there are perceived instances where suboptimal practice persists in the presence of better options due to an inherent resistance to change within many health care systems. To continue striving for clinical excellence, it is important to identify deficient practices and make appropriate corrections by implementing new and improved techniques and treatments. Bringing about change, however, tends to be a long, arduous process consisting of several small and successive deviations from the norm, analogous to “turning the oil tanker”. Analyzing the methods employed by successful health care innovators has allowed the development of a “three-pronged” approach to overcoming resistance to change: 1) a determined opinion leader with a network or like-minded opinion leaders; 2) the presentation of hard evidence with adequate praise for current practice and the generation of clearly worded, specific guidelines; and 3) the use of simple reminders and continuous analysis of outcomes. Employing this three-pronged approach could lead to faster and more successful implementation of change within the health care system.
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