Week 5 Initial Discussion Post
The Unique Role of Evidence-based Leadership (EBL)
Healthcare organizations are challenged with ensuring that consistent use of evidence-based practices (EBP) is implemented in the clinical setting. Therefore, these challenges will require nurse leaders to promote a culture of inquiry amongst the nursing team. To further complicate the challenge of using the best evidence for providing quality patient care, Gallagher et al. (2019) note that it takes 8-30 years to get evidence into practice resulting in patients not receiving the best possible care. To mitigate these challenges, leaders must act as change agents and provide the resources needed to promote and support EBP implementation (Valimaki et al., 2021). Additionally, healthcare leaders need to better understand and lead the charge by ensuring the minimization of barriers and allocation of resources so that caregivers feel supported with bringing EBP to the patients served (Gallagher et al., 2019). Furthermore, leaders acting as visionaries are crucial to front-line staff members’ success, sustainability, and engagement in EBP initiatives. A few items to aid in the success of EBP are ensuring staff education, revised job descriptions, changes in clinical ladder requirements, and having EBP mentors within the organization (Gallagher et al.)
Leadership Qualities
Evidence-based practice (EBP) improves safety, quality, and patient care outcomes. It is defined as “a lifelong problem-solving approach to the delivery of healthcare that integrates the best evidence from well-designed studies” (Caramanica et al., 2022, p. 27). Leaders must be influential in supporting and guiding their team through focused problem-solving to incorporate the best evidence into the patient care setting. Leaders must also possess the knowledge and skill-set needed to act as a mentor in the push for driving EBP in the work environment. The two levels of evidence-based leadership commitment are self-actualization of EBP and being the visionary for ensuring EBP is engrained into practice. The second evidence-based leadership commitment is to facilitate a culture of EBP as the basis for clinical decision-making. According to Gallagher et al. (2019), a leadership style that is important to mention is transformational leaders that form a partnership with and gain the trust of frontline caregivers to gain the ability to effect change and EBP inclusion into the culture. Caramanica et al. (2022) note that leadership support and engagement are integral to successfully sustaining EBP to guide practice and improve patient outcomes.
References
Caramanica, L., Gallagher-Ford, L., Idelman, L., Mindrila, D., Richter, S., & Thomas, B. K. (2022). Establishment of nurse manager leadership competencies to support clinicians in evidence-based practice. The Journal of Nursing Administration, 52(1), 27-34. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNA.0000000000001099 (Links to an external site.)
Gallagher-Ford, L., Buck, J. S., & Melnyk, B. M. (2019). Leadership strategies for creating and sustaining evidence-based practice organizations. In B. M. Melnyk & E. Fineout-Overholt (Eds), Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing and Healthcare: A Guide to Best Practice (4th ed., pp. 328-347). Wolters Kluwer.
Valimaki, M. A., Lantta, T., Hipp, K., Varpula, J., Liu, G., Tang, Y., Chen, W., Hu, S., & Li, X. (2021). Measured and perceived impacts of evidence-based leadership in nursing: A mixed-methods systematic review protocol. BMJ Open, 11(10), e055356. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055356