This post courtesy of Anne Taylor-Vaisey:

Here’s a promising article from the November 2004 issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing:

Rycroft-Malone J, Harvey G, Seers K, Kitson A, McCormack B, Titchen A. An exploration of the factors that influence the implementation of evidence into practice. J Clin Nurs. 2004 Nov;13(8):913-24.

Background. The challenges of implementing evidence-based practice are complex and varied. Against this background a framework has been developed to represent the multiple factors that may influence the implementation of evidence into practice. It is proposed that successful implementation is dependent upon the nature of the evidence being used, the quality of context, and, the type of facilitation required to enable the change process. This study sets out to scrutinize the elements of the framework through empirical enquiry.

Aims and objectives. The aim of the study was to address the following questions:

* What factors do practitioners identify as the most important in enabling implementation of evidence into practice?

* What are the factors practitioners identify that mediate the implementation of evidence into practice?

* Do the concepts of evidence, context and facilitation constitute the key elements of a framework for getting evidence into practice?

This Dalhousie University study, presented at the SACME fall meeting, looked at why, since interaction with other participants is required for accredited online CME in Canada, and since education and nursing participants thought the interaction was fine in their programs, research in online CME shows a low satisfaction with online interactivity.

The presenter, Dalhousie s Joan Sargeant, lost me a little with her explanation of diffusion theory, which as far as I could tell comes down to people basing their adoption of something new on their perceptions of the innovation. This perception, she said, is based on the relative advantage of the innovation, and how well it correlates with current experience and beliefs.

Experience and perception

So they asked physicians what their experiences were with accredited online CME, and what their perceptions of this way of learning are, in order to find out what s behind these perceptions.