Ovid® Synthesis is designed to support learners and mentors who lead Nurse Residency Programs in their efforts to carry out the research needed to support EBP and QI initiatives.
Nurse Residency Programs play a critical role in helping newly licensed nurses develop the skills they need as they transition from nursing school into professional practice.
Today, nurses are increasingly required to incorporate concepts of evidence-based practice (EBP) and quality improvement (QI) in their work to improve clinical outcomes, safety, and the overall healthcare experience for patients and reduce professional frustration and burnout.
Against this backdrop, Nurse Residency Programs must continue to evolve their training by empowering nurses to develop targeted research projects. Using research queries, nurse residents seek to define a pressing clinical issue (such as hospital-acquired infections, preventable ulcers and falls, medication errors, hospital readmission rates, and more) and then carry out focused literature searches to identify clinical findings and best practices that can inform nursing protocols and support standardized, data-driven patient care. Such an effort starts with the PICOT model, whereby a targeted research query is framed in terms of five key elements — Patient/Population/Problem, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes, and Timelines.
One shortcoming of many Nurse Residency Programs, which typically run from 6 to 12 months, is that they can vary substantially from hospital to hospital. Such variability arises from a need for standardized program elements and consistent experience among educators and mentors concerning research capabilities that support EBP and QI initiatives. Investing in the right technology can strengthen and standardize Nurse Residency Programs.
Technology helps turn knowledge into skills
Ovid® Synthesis is designed to support nurses and the educators and mentors who lead Nurse Residency Programs in their efforts to carry out the research needed to support EBP and QI initiatives. A variety of user-friendly tools enable collaboration and improve the experience of nurses and educators using the system, including:
- Standardized and customizable templates to guide nurses through each step of the PICOT research process, creating an evidence table and disseminating the findings using standardized formats such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, poster and manuscript formats, and more
- Embedded decision-support tools, such as user-friendly pop-ups and drop-downs that support stakeholders throughout the research process
- User-friendly dashboards that give educators real-time visibility into multiple in-progress research projects to reduce the potential for redundancy and help mentors prioritize project teams in need of guidance
- A central repository to manage the storage of all research projects, which can support the accreditation process for Nurse Residents and serve as a repository for Exemplar projects required when an institution is seeking Magnet® designation
By streamlining and automating many steps and tasks needed to support EBP and QI and improve clinical care, Ovid Synthesis addresses many of the issues leading to burnout among nurses, helping to improve professional satisfaction throughout all stages of the nurse’s career.
Case in point
AdventHealth, a non-profit healthcare system headquartered in Florida, operates 51 hospital campuses and hundreds of care sites nationwide. Its West Florida Division, which comprises 13 campuses, launched a 12-month Nurse Residency Program in February 2022.
AdventHealth implemented Ovid Synthesis to formalize and standardize the PICOT research process to enable EBP projects across multiple campuses. In its first 10 months of use, the West Florida Division trained more than 600 nurse residents in the use of Ovid Synthesis — helping nurse residents take their projects from PICOT to poster with greater efficiency and less burden on all stakeholders, and fostering a spirit of teamwork that allows nurses to feel more engaged and empowered as they make the transition from student to professional.
Learn more about how to utilize Ovid Synthesis for your evidence-based practice needs and book a demo.
