School of Nursing & Midwifery Annual Report 2018

Impact Stories: The Broader Context

The Department of Health launches an implementation guide and toolkit to support those involved in the development and implementation of national clinical guidelines

The Story: The National Clinical Effectiveness Committee and National Patient Safety Office in the Department of Health in partnership with the Centre for Effective Services launched an implementation guide and toolkit to support those involved in the development and implementation of national clinical guidelines. The launch took place at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, University College Cork on September 19th, 2018. A half-day seminar on implementation science and theory was hosted in parallel with the launch. Professor Carl May of The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine; Prof Dinah Gould from Cardiff University and Professor Josephine Hegarty, University College Cork spoke to the importance of implementation science and theory in realising the full potential of clinical guidelines. Implementation science is an evolving field of science, which seeks to facilitate the conversion of confirmed evidence into practice by patients, providers and health systems in real world situations. Professor Hegarty explained that ultimately the focus is on ‘getting science and evidence into real world clinical practice which requires working with busy clinical teams, different clinical environments and with diverse patient groups’. Implementation science provides the tools to assist such a process. The implementation guide identifies the best practices based on the current evidence and provides the steps and tools for each stage of implementation of guidelines in the clinical practice setting. Professor Karen Ryan, Chair of the National Clinical Effectiveness Committee welcomed the Implementation Guide, stating, “This is a very practical and useful resource. Implementation focuses on operationalising a plan – it is about ‘how’ something will be carried out, as well as ‘what’ will be carried out”. In the end, real change is more likely

to happen when we provide those at the centre of the change process the necessary tools to facilitate the change process.

Link to tool kit: https://health.gov.ie/wp-content/ uploads/2018/09/NCEC-Implementation-Guide-2018.pdf

Pictured above (l-r): Prof Dinah Gould, Dr Maura Smiddy, Professor Carl May, Dr Heloise Agreli, Fiona Barry, Professor Josephine Hegarty, Dr Sarah Condell, Dr Ashling Sheehan, Professor Eileen Savage, Dr Niamh O’Rourke, Dr Sile Creedon.

The integration of best evidence into clinical practice promotes healthcare that is up to date, effective and consistent. Implementation science is an evolving field of science, which seeks to facilitate the conversion of confirmed evidence into practice.

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