Although research has indicated that patient outcomes are substantially improved when professional practice is based on evidence from well-designed studies, only a small percentage of healthcare providers are implementing evidence-based care. Narrowing the knowledge-practice gap is a tremendous challenge for the nursing and medical professions as well as a priority goal for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the proposed conference. However, in an era where cost containment is placing extreme pressures on the delivery of patient care, nurses and other healthcare providers are struggling to implement evidence-based care while managing demanding patient loads. Therefore, intensified efforts must be taken in order to decrease the time lag between the discovery of research findings and implementation into practice in the form of evidence-based care. The proposed conference is an excellent match with AHRQ's long-term commitment to translating research into practice and focuses on two of AHRQ's priority areas: children's health care issues and the care of older adults. The objectives of our fourth annual EBP conference are to assist nurses and other healthcare providers in learning the skills to: (a) search for the latest practice evidence, (b) critically appraise the strength of evidence that is relevant to their practice, (c) plan practice changes in response to critically appraised evidence, (d) overcome barriers in implementing evidence-based care, (e) plan strategies for evaluating the outcomes of evidence-based care, and (f) become knowledgeable of the most current evidence that is influencing the care of high-risk children and youth, older adults, and the acute/critically ill. The proposed funding will greatly enhance the impact of this conference through national outreach and dissemination of the best practices for these three vulnerable populations.
