How to get your best practices on the Web
New network offers Web access to benchmarks
Have a problem you know other hospitals have dealt with? Want to know how they did it? Now you have a new resource for discovering best practices that's as easy as turning on your computer and going on line. It's the Web site for the Best Practice Network (BPN), a new forum for sharing information among health care professionals that was started by 13 nursing organizations.
The best part is that it's free. The network is supported financially by dozens of nursing and physician organizations and, of course, welcomes memberships and donations. But the driving force is the sharing of information; anyone can access the interactive Web site (www.best4health.org), says Mary Kingston, RN, MN, director of the BPN.
"We want as much of this information to be as accessible as possible," she says. "We want to encourage people who have something valuable to contribute to add it to our site, and we also want people who need help to come to the site and take something valuable away."
The well-organized Web site offers several sections, including the "Best Practice Incubator," which allows people to put their project ideas on line as they are evolving. The idea is for Web site visitors to offer feedback and help on the projects, which will undergo a peer-review process for inclusion in a published directory of best practices. Currently, six completed best practice submissions are under review. Examples of projects found on the incubator section include critical care redesign, development of a PTCA/stent pathway, and pre-op patient preparation. "We want to encour age people who have developed innovative patient-focused programs to share them," Kingston says. "They have to be thorough, timely, accessible, and meet patient needs."
Another section of the site offers "everyday innovations," or ideas for small incremental improvements. The network offers cash prizes for first- and second-place submissions in a six-month period. One recent winner was a tip on tracheos tomy tube security. The tip suggests using IV tubing to secure mature tracheostomy tubing instead of twill tape or Velcro. The writers of the tip say the IV tubing can be cleaned easily and doesn't get wet as quickly, thus preventing skin irritation.
Visitors to the site can participate in a creative discussion board, with topics organized under these headings: clinical practice, professional practice, and documentation and system issues. Recent topics included nursing dress codes, RN evaluation and compensation, and critical care unit orientation. The site also offers a free subscription to a monthly e-mail newsletter and a section of provocative essays on health care issues.
Network emphasizes sharing information
Brenda S. Gregory Dawes, editor of the Associ ation of Operating Room Nurses Journal, says the BPN's emphasis on sharing information through technology comes in the right place at the right time. "The information available on the Web site is new, current, and readily accessible," Dawes says. "The only way you could have gotten this information before was through a lot of work, a lot of phone calls. Now, anyone with access to the Internet can get it."
Dawes says the people who ultimately will benefit the most from the BPN are the patients. "It's a real plus for all of us in health care to have so many groups involved," she says. "Sharing information is so important for patient care. As nurses and as health care professionals, we now have the opportunity to play a more comprehensive, multidisciplinary role."
Kingston says the people who work at the bedside should be the ones to implement patient care improvements and figure out what the improvements should look like. That prompted a group of nursing leaders who first met more than two years ago to discuss ways to shape health care. Their solution: the BPN.
"The people at the bedside have the key to improving health care, but they're never really engaged in the changes," Kingston says. "We have the ability to tap into the best resources, the people who can tell us what's wrong with the processes. That's where the real renaissance in health care is."
The BPN, founded by 13 nursing organizations and based at the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, maintains the interactive Web site and sponsors the Showcase for Innovation and Best Practices, an international conference on the "best of the best practices." Coming soon is the first edition of The Best Practice Directory, a compilation of peer-reviewed best practices, innovative ideas, and resources useful in the development of best practices.
So far, 29 professional organizations including two physician groups (the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the American College of Preventive Medicine) have become BPN partners who contribute money and/or ideas to the project. "This is so innovative because nursing and physician associations haven't partnered before," Kingston says. "They haven't taken advantage of the power of collaboration."
The network is supported by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses; American Academy of Nursing; American Asso ciation of Neuroscience Nurses; American Holistic Nurses Association; American Nurses Association; Amer ican Nephrology Nurses Asso ciation; Associ a tion of Operating Room Nurses; American Psychiatric Nurses Association; Associ ation of Rehabilitation Nurses; Association of Women's Health, Obstetrics and Neonatal Nurses; AACN Certification Corpor ation; National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists; National Black Nurses Association; Oncology Nursing Society; Society of Otorhinolar yngology & Head-Neck Nurses; Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses Society; American Associ a tion for Continuity of Care; American Society of Perianesthesia Nurses; National Student Nurses Association; National Association of School Nurses; Association of Pediatric Oncology Nurses; American College of Preventive Medicine; Ameri can Society of Oph thalmic Registered Nurses; National Association of Orthopaedic Nurses; Phil ippine Nurses Associa tion of America; Sigma Theta Tau International Inc.; Society of Gastroen ter ology Nurses and Associates; Society of Critical Care Medicine; and American College of Preven tive Medicine.
[For more details, contact Mary Kingston, Best Practice Network director, Association of Critical-Care Nurses, Aliso Viejo, CA. Telephone: (714) 362-2050 ext. 403.]
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