Evidence-Based Practice / Unit 10 EBP 1395 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Running an Evidence-Based Quality Improvement Project
The idea
The technique: settle whether the project is QI or research before collecting anything; synthesise the evidence for best practice; take a baseline; write an aim with a number and a date; choose the outcome, process and balancing measures in advance; then test in small cycles and study each one before scaling.
In practice
A pressure-injury project. Category settled as quality improvement, so no research claim is made. The literature synthesised into a best practice. Baseline rates graphed from routine documentation. An aim written naming the population, the target and the date. Outcome, process and balancing measures fixed before the change. A cause-and-effect diagram used to sort candidate causes, and a Pareto ordering to choose where to start. One PDSA cycle run on a single unit, studied, adjusted, and only then extended. Results reported for the setting that produced them, with the internal evidence feeding the next clinical question.
Where people slip
Fix the measures before the change, and include a balancing measure. Measures chosen afterwards can be selected to fit the result, and without a balancing measure a problem that moved looks exactly like a problem that was solved.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
- 1352Evidence-Based Quality Improvement
- 1356Donabedian's Three Categories
- 1361Balancing Measures
- 1362Benchmarking
- 1367Outcomes Management, in Four Phases
- 1371The Model for Improvement
- 1372Question One — What Are We Trying to Accomplish?
- 1373Question Two — How Will We Know a Change Is an Improvement?
- 1375Plan-Do-Study-Act
- 1376The Aim Statement
- 1386Effect Size in a QI Project
- 1388QI Results Do Not Generalise
- 1390Is It QI or Is It Research?
Unlocks
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