The morbidity and mortality associated with cardiac surgery is commonly a consequence of pulmonary complications. Improving lung function may reduce postoperative pulmonary complications. While the benefit of postoperative physical therapy interventions is fairly well documented, there is a paucity of evidence in relation to the impact of preoperative physical therapy on postoperative pulmonary complications and […]
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Context Matters: Factors that Promote Knowledge Exchange
For someone my age, learning to communicate via a blog or tweeting is a steep curve. My five-year old granddaughter is more adept at downloading apps and searching the internet than I. Besides age, I’m also discovering other important factors that influence knowledge exchange through my research in northern Canada. The context of a health […]
RCN 2013 International Nursing Research Conference Belfast
Some reflections from Suzanne Watts, this year’s Marjorie Simpson New Researcher Award winner I suspect that the 2013 RCN International Research Conference will be remembered by the delegates for two things. The first being the breadth and scope of the outstanding presentations and the second the weather. For some of the delegates the blizzard conditions […]
EBN Twitter Journal Club #ebnjc – Session 6
There is a wealth of data showing the benefits of lifestyle behaviour change from activities that create high risk for poor health to those that lead to more optimal health. The question asked by any nurse initiating a health promotion project is what supports people in their efforts to change? The discussion this week focuses […]
Patient-centred care: harmonising patients and professionals perspectives
Last week I was debating with a group of second year pre-registration child field of practice nursing students what concepts such as ‘family-centred care’ and ‘patient-centeredness’ meant to them and how these concepts informed their practice. Overwhelming the students felt these concepts were implicit when working with children, young people and families and a central […]
Narrative Practice
I heard an interesting lecture today. It was about narrative analysis. I won’t delve into detail about this qualitative analysis approach. Rather I would like to focus on the comment made by the professor who teaches medical students. He teaches ‘narrative medicine’. Narrative medicine occurs when a physician moves beyond simply attending to a patient’s […]
EBN Twitter Journal Club #ebnjc – Session 5
Pain is often the most dreaded symptom of illness and injury. At the same time, it is one of the most common symptoms of hospitalized patients, regardless of their underlying condition. Nurses have many tools for pain assessment and there are numerous management strategies for pain. Yet, the featured research article for this session implies […]
Challenges of incorporating evidence within clinical practice
I am passionate about developing nurses skills in relation to accessing and using the best available evidence to inform clinical decisions. Consequently, joining the editorial team at Evidence-Based Nursing was an exciting start to the year. New roles are often associated with a mix of emotions, from excitement to apprehension and having the skills to […]
Skills for evidence-based nursing
In the last few weeks, following the publication of the Francis report there has been a lot of discussion in the UK nursing press about why the nurses at Mid-Staffs did not whistle blow about the poor practice that was taking place in the hospital. We will probably never understand this completely but I think […]
EBN Twitter Journal Club – Session 4
Using the best available evidence, along with clinical experience and patient preferences, to inform clinical decisions is essential to the quality of care delivered. The nurses’ role in contribution to evidence-based practice is pivotal because nurses are the largest group of healthcare practitioners. However, it is known that nurses’ use of research in their clinical […]