EVALUATION PROPOSAL

Evaluation Proposal for Substance Abuse Agency

ABSTRACT

Evidence-based practice (EBP) refers to the application of scientific research findings to the treatment of individual patients. The endorsement of EBP is ubiquitous among all health care professions. In fact, a physician recently quipped, "you can't kick over a bed pan without hearing the phrase 'evidence-based medicine' rattles out". Beyond endorsement, however, the call for EBP is a crescendo within today's health care environment. Effective interventions offer enormous potential to enhance patient outcomes and efficiency within the health care system. Therefore, utilization of rehabilitation research is critical in improving rehabilitation service delivery and ultimately patients' outcomes.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACTii

Literature Review4

Methodology6

Design of logical model of the agency6

Evaluation Approach for Iowa Model7

Data Preparation8

Data Analysis9

Strengths and Limitation of the proposed model9

Implications10

Conclusion10

REFERENCES11

Evaluation Proposal for Substance Abuse Agency

Literature Review

Formal evaluation procedures were built into the project. Medical records were reviewed prior to the implementation of the guidelines to ascertain if any substance abuse screening had been conducted prior to utilizing the RNAO's interventions. They were reviewed again after the initial data collection period (Chandran, 2002). Efforts were made to protect patient confidentiality during the chart reviews. The data collection included provisions to de-identify all patient data (Breitkopf, 2006). This was submitted to the Institutional Review Board of Catholic University and a letter of exemption for this project was obtained. Informal evaluation took place with staff members involved so their feedback was taken into consideration. Suggestions for later instrument modification arose based on this input.

(Breggin, 2008) describes the following competencies as essential for an expert nurse in the obstetrical/gynecological setting: “clinical expertise, effective communication skills, critical thinking and analytical skills, and a theoretical orientation to problem solving”. Although she was writing about the role of the clinical nurse specialist, these traits are necessary for any advanced practice nurse in the same setting. Nurses in this role can become adept at use of clinical practice guidelines such as the RNAO Best Practice Guidelines as operationalized by the EPDS, incorporating them into their practice, and are in a position to teach other staff members how to use them in their roles (Beck, 2008). This results in cross-disciplinary training. A nurse with a doctor of nursing practice (DNP) degree is in the appropriate position to apply the research that has been done in the field of substance abuse screening for substance abuse, leading her practice to incorporate validated evidence for improvement of patient services and outcomes (Almond, 2009).

It is increasingly imperative for clinicians to use EBP for their clinical treatment decisions. More specifically, fiscal and political imperatives exist for EBP. Medicare, arguably the largest healthcare payer in the world, uses evidence-based guidelines for establishing health care coverage and reimbursement. Federal legislation calls on practitioners (and organizations who employ them) to incorporate evidence-based practices in their care delivery (Almond, 2009). There is also an ethical imperative for EBP (Aarons, 2009). Failure to make evidence-based decisions gives rise to undesirable disparities in healthcare delivery. Disparities arise, in part, from clinical decisions that are intuition- ...