KEY TERM
journal club:
A strategy for
disseminating
research among
nurses by discussing
articles in a small
groupIdentify a nurse on your clinical unit who has a skill for creating tables in a computer program.
Who would be good at collecting and organizing data? Find another nurse who has a talent for
public speaking. Try to include as many colleagues as possible.CRITICAL THINKING EXERCISE 16-2
asked to gain a complete picture of a practice environment. After the data are
collected, decide whether a problem exists. To illustrate this concept, recall the
medical-surgical unit where the nurses perceived an increase in patient falls.
Suppose when the data were examined, patient falls appeared actually to have
decreased. One would have a difficult time convincing colleagues on the unit,
much less nursing administrators, that there was a need to change practice,
process, or policy. From this scenario it would seem that another important
activity to engage others in transitioning evidence to practice is the need to be
able to demonstrate that a problem exists.
What if you did not have this skill related to creating and communicating
a problem statement? What could you do next? One approach that might be
considered is to develop competencies related to data collection and problem
identification. Identify someone on the unit or within the organization who
collects, organizes, and presents the data and problem well. You can recog-
nize these colleagues by their job title or because you understand the issues
and data when listening to their presentations. Some job titles are clinical
nurse specialist, process improvement specialist, or data abstractor specialist.
Another way to develop abilities to gather, organize, and present data is to
volunteer to help a more experienced nurse or volunteer to participate on an
organization’s process improvement committee. Through such collaboration,
two things are accomplished. First, a better understanding of the process can
be gained. Second, you develop a collegial relationship with someone who
can assist you in the future.
A journal club is another technique to engage others in transitioning evi-
dence to practice (Gardner et al., 2016). Traditionally, one or two articles about
a topic are provided to nurses in the club. Nurses gather to discuss the content
in the articles. In many organizations, journal clubs take the form of brown
bag lunches, nursing grand rounds, or unit-based potlucks. These gatherings
provide a relaxed atmosphere where nurses can be exposed to practice issues
and current evidence and ask questions. For some individuals, it is easier to
ask questions and challenge assumptions with those they interact with on a
daily basis. For others, a more formal structure to the inquiry and learning
process may be necessary. With the advances in technology, journal clubs are
developing online (Chan et al., 2016) or you can take a hybrid approach by
16.2 Creating Change 437