Putting the evidence into practice: the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre experience

Abstract

For more than a decade, evidence-based practice has become the desired aim behind organized health care. Although a plethora of reasons exist as to why clinicians are reluctant to adopt research-based findings, the fundamentals relate to management of change and the nature of the individuals involved. Large organizations, with their daily routines and operations, are inherently difficult to change. Hence, one has to use the very structures that drive the organization to effect 'sustained' change. In large tertiary care facilities, such as the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, these structures are policies and procedures. This paper provides details of the process developed by the Nursing Affairs Practice Committee of the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre to achieve the committee mandate of: 'Establish and implement an evidence-based process for the systematic review and revision of nursing clinical standards, policies, procedures and protocols'.