Professor Nicole Marsh1
1Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Herston, QLD, 4029, nicole.marsh@health.qld.gov.au
Bridging the gap between research and evidence-based practice is an ongoing challenge in healthcare. Clinically embedded health professionals are vital to ensuring timely implementation of best infection prevention and control strategies. However, ongoing operational demands and workforce shortages often hinder their ability to engage in quality improvement initiatives and research. To embed a culture of research and practice innovation into everyday clinical practice it is important for health services to support and encourage novel solutions.
This presentation will explore opportunities and barriers to accessing and analysing routinely collected patient datasets to measure clinical outcomes and test infection prevention and control strategies; and present examples. It will also describe the impact a hospital embedded nursing and midwifery evidence-based program has had on changing clinical practice guidelines and global practice.