This chapter discusses the evidence-based practice (EBP) paradigm and how it can be used to guide and improve organizational policies, healthcare quality, and patient outcomes. EBP is a problem-solving approach to the delivery of healthcare that integrates the best evidence from well-designed studies with a clinician’s expertise and patients’ preferences and values. Important components of clinical expertise in the EBP paradigm include: data gathered from a thorough patient assessment, internal evidence generated from outcomes management, quality improvement initiatives, and EBP implementation projects, and the evaluation of and use of available resources necessary to achieve desired patient outcomes. The chapter describes the difference between external and internal evidence, with an emphasis on how both types of evidence are important for changing institutional policies. It highlights the outcomes management and types of data collection systems that can be used to inform organizational policies.

This chapter describes how simulation fits the needs for 21st-century nursing education. It covers the aspects include the changing needs for nursing education in a technologically complex environment, how to succeed when incorporating simulation, the importance of the faculty role in embedding simulation throughout the nursing curriculum, meeting the challenges of clinical placement, and specific challenges and benefits to integrating simulation into the curriculum with an evidence-based practice focus. Simulation provides the missing piece for nursing education through harnessing each student’s enthusiasm for technology into an interactive and valuable learning experience in which to engage in critical thinking (Radhakrishnan, Roche, & Cunningham, 2007). Simulation takes on a life of its own, thus becoming "real" to the students. In conclusion, this chapter has emphasized the importance of integrating a simulation-focused pedagogy throughout the curriculum to best meet the needs of our program.

Educators use simulation in seminar experiences to teach key concepts from lecture and reading assignments in order to encourage critical thinking among students in all phases of the nursing program. Some of their important focuses are evidence-based practice, standards of care, and patient safety. This chapter presents a scenario of acute management of a patient in pulmonary edema. Overall objectives of the scenario are for students to demonstrate critical thinking skills in the care of the complex patient. Students must be able to identify inconsistencies with hand-off communication, recognize symptoms, and establish treatment options for acute respiratory distress as a result of congestive heart failure or pulmonary edema. It is recommended that students have basic knowledge from lecture regarding congestive heart failure and pulmonary edema prior to the scenario. In addition, there should be a discussion regarding treatment of respiratory distress and medications most frequently used.

Many schools and departments of nursing and other health professions use a three-chapter traditional format for writing a PhD proposal. The traditional organization makes it hard to write articles reporting the dissertation research. Most biomedical journals now include only a short introduction in research articles that briefly makes the case for study, and many other health care journals are moving in that direction as well. Indeed, writing a proposal involves rewriting and editing, again and again. For the dissertation, one do that under the supervision of the chair, but the process of revising, editing, revising again, and editing again is the same for any proposal one write, so think of this as one of the most important learning experiences of the doctoral program. Remember that if one wants evidence-based practice, the best way to get the evidence to practitioners is to publish review papers.

This chapter discusses the major types of things one might want to consider for whatever type of proposal he/she is writing. A detailed budget and its justification are included in supplemental materials, while other proposals require this information in an appendix or in its own section as part of the text. Many types of proposals ask one to indicate how he/she will protect the individuals who take part in his/her study. This is true for almost all research, career development, fellowship, and evidence-based practice (EBP) proposals. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) requirements for the protection of human subjects are quite detailed, so they can serve as a good guide for things to consider in any proposal we are writing.

Translational projects are essential because a lot of interventions that research has shown to be efficacious are never put into practice and, therefore, no one benefits from them. A project might focus on establishing routine use in health departments of an intervention found to reduce depression among low-income pregnant women. These projects are research projects, and are often funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other major agencies; therefore, a proposal for funding such a project needs to be written like the standard research proposal. Evidence-based practice (EBP) projects focus on providers; they are designed to improve care delivery; that is, they are quality improvement projects. Quality improvement efforts are in most cases designed to solve problems that many people or agencies experience and thus are EBP projects. All nurses have the clinical skills; the key is to recognize that good writing is about observing and making decisions.

The interprofessional simulation in this chapter is ideal for nursing students in prelicensure baccalaureate, registered nurse (RN)-to-Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) students, or graduate programs. It serves pharmacy, respiratory, or medical students and is appropriate for a professional development activity for health care professionals responding to cardiac emergencies. St. John’s College of Nursing in Springfield, Illinois, offers this simulation in the baccalaureate program to medical-surgical students during their penultimate semester in the program, after completion of two other medical-surgical courses spiraled in difficulty. This simulation-based pedagogy allows evidence-based practice in a faculty-supported environment where students can gain confidence and learn from their actions, as well as by observing interprofessional peers. Respiratory care students complete the advanced cardiovascular life support (ACLS) provider course before this interprofessional education (IPE) and have additional prereading about cardiovascular resuscitation.

Experiences for the obstetric and pediatric clinical areas are becoming difficult to acquire for students, as increasing numbers of students compete for a small number of slots, and constraints on the numbers of students allowed in clinical settings continue to rise. As postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) constitutes an obstetric emergency and remains a major cause of maternal morbidity and mortality in high- and low-resource countries, using a simulator offers an ideal opportunity for students to practice their skills in simulated PPH. This chapter presents a scenario that was modified and used at the University of British Columbia (UBC) School of Nursing (SoN) since January 2015. Student preparation requires readings, videos, and evidence-based practice protocols for PPH. This scenario is a high-risk case that could be used to educate new staff to family birthing units and obstetric floors, as well as undergraduate and graduate nursing students.

The structure of proposals differs depending on what we are proposing to do and where we plan to send the proposal for approval or funding. One should develop the argument for a new study or an evidence-based practice project using the literature to document their points. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) reviewers are generally well informed about the research and they assume that they are well informed, so one should provide only a quick review of the literature, focusing on the studies they are building on and showing why more work is needed. The dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) diet, developed to reduce hypertension, and have been shown to be effective in helping people lose weight. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have recommended an intervention that is effective for self-managing diabetes.