Creative Collaboration Advances Nursing Education and Practice

A new academic-practice partnership between LSU Health New Orleans School of Nursing and University Medical Center New Orleans is already achieving success in advancing nursing education and health care. The school and its major teaching hospital in New Orleans established a Nursing Research and Evidence-Based Practice Council. The resulting synergy between nursing education and practice will not only improve the students’ educational experience but patient outcomes and overall health. The initiative and its early results are described in a paper published this month in Voices of Nursing Leadership.

The dean of the nursing school and the hospital’s chief nursing officer lead the council, which comprises 13 hospital nurses and 7 School of Nursing faculty. Its charter includes providing nursing research and evidence-based practice education and training, conducting collaborative nursing research, mentoring and engaging nurses in evidence-based practice.

Early successes include:

* A 9.3% reduction in aggressive behaviors on the inpatient psychiatric unit after a nursing school faculty member and a psychiatric nurse completed the Joanna Briggs Institute Evidence-Based Clinical Fellowship Program with enhanced training for early recognition and intervention for patients who exhibit aggressive behaviors.

* Reviewed and expedited approval of more than 10 Doctor of Nursing Practice projects.

* Reviewed and approved four nurse investigator-led research projects.

* Conducted a research knowledge survey that found hospital nurses are interested in evidence-based practice and nursing research but lack knowledge on both topics.

* Organized and presented the first nursing research conference that addressed knowledge gaps.

“The Council formalizes our research collaboration with UMC and capitalizes on each organization’s assets and strengths,” notes coauthor Dr. Demetrius Porche, Professor and Dean of LSU Health New Orleans School of Nursing. “Our joint research will foster evidence-based practice, which will not only better prepare future nurses but improve nursing care resulting in better patient outcomes. UMC Chief Nursing Officer Dr. Denise Danna’s breadth of knowledge and experience will continue to be a critical factor in the Council’s success.”

LSU Health New Orleans School of Nursing is the only nursing school within an academic health sciences center in Louisiana. Its mission is to provide local, national, and international leadership in the education of professional nurses to function as generalists, advanced practitioners, educators, scholars and researchers who shape the delivery of nursing practice and education. The school has been recognized as a National League for Nursing Center of Excellence in Nursing Education, a Stellar School by the National Student Nurses’ Association and Nursing Schools Almanac ranks it the #9 nursing school in the US, the #5 public nursing school in the US and the #2 nursing school in the Southeast.

“The Nursing Research and Evidence-Based Council is a successful collaboration between UMCNO and LSU Health New Orleans School of Nursing,” says Dr. Denise Danna, Chief Nursing Officer of University Medical Center New Orleans (UMCNO). “Through the leadership of Dr. Demetrius Porche and the School of Nursing faculty, UMCNO’s nurses have been able to learn how research and evidence-based practice improves patient outcomes and nursing practice.”

University Medical Center New Orleans, home to Reverend Avery C. Alexander Academic Research Hospital, is the academic medical center of LCMC Health and the ultimate expression of a nearly 280-year legacy of serving the people of New Orleans and South Louisiana. With our academic partners, including Louisiana State University and Tulane University Schools of Medicine, we are training the next generation of healthcare professionals and leading research to find tomorrow’s cures and treatments. From expert primary care and the widest variety of specialty care to cutting edge emergency care and the region’s only Level 1 Trauma Center, UMC New Orleans offers the area the widest breadth of healthcare services.