TCU launches JBI partnership with healthcare lecture and celebration

Dr. Anne Wilson, Dr. Susan Weeks, Dr. Paulette Burns and Dr. Kathy Baker celebrating TCU being a JBI collaboration center.

Fort Worth, TX

5/21/2010

TCU’s Center for Evidence Based Practice and Research (CEBPR) officially celebrated its affiliation with the Joanna Briggs Institute on April 21, 2010. The event began with a procession of international flags and concluded with a ribbon tying, rather than a ribbon cutting, to symbolize the connections being made between TCU and the Joanna Briggs Institute. Dr. Anne Wilson, a senior healthcare lecturer from the University of Adelaide in South Australia, spoke on “Evidence Based Healthcare: How the Joanna Briggs Institute Can Support Your Practice.”

“As healthcare professionals, we must implement care supported by systematic research,” said Dr. Wilson. “Evidence based practice occurs when healthcare professionals use the best evidence possible with rigorous and well-funded clinical decisions in consultation with the patient to decide the best option.”

Dr. Wilson has worked continuously for the improvement of population health through research, teaching and supervision. Many of her recommendations have been implemented into practice and policy in the delivery of healthcare services.

“Today, we have the Joanna Briggs Collaborating Center at TCU and JBI has asked us to translate their Comprehensive Systematic Review training into an online format,” said Dr. Paulette Burns, dean of TCU’s Harris College of Nursing & Health Sciences.

“Dr. Susan Weeks pulled together an evidence based collaboration with over 40 hospitals in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and recently celebrated the graduation of 32 Evidence Based Practice Fellows. These EBP Fellows are nurses who will bring research knowledge to the point of care,” Dr. Burns said. “She looked around the globe to learn what others in the profession are doing. After training in systematic review at the Joanna Briggs Institute in Australia, Dr. Weeks recognized that JBI's goals matched TCU’s goals.”

The new collaboration with TCU’s CEBPR will help both organizations extend their reach in evidence generation, synthesis, transfer and utilization. TCU is only the fourth university in the U.S. to be accepted as a collaboration center.

“JBI, with more than 54 centers servicing more than 90 countries, bridges the gap between academia and practice,” said Dr. Susan Mace Weeks, associate dean of TCU’s Harris College of Nursing & Health Sciences and director of the CEBPR. “As a JBI collaborating center, the CEBPR will promote the mission of the JBI, which is a global leader in evidence-based healthcare.”

“The proposed collaborating center will engage both academic and practice associates,” Dr. Weeks said. “JBI specializes in evidence-based resources for healthcare professionals in nursing, midwifery, medicine and allied health.”

This collaboration will help both the CEBPR and JBI further their respective missions. The practice of nurses and other healthcare professionals will be enhanced, and the quality of care delivered by agencies affiliated with the Joanna Briggs Collaborating Center at TCU will be enhanced.

The CEBPR provides an opportunity for collaborative learning and research by faculty and students interacting with real-world healthcare practice problems. This is accomplished through faculty experts who serve as evidence based practice and research consultants to area healthcare organizations. It also accelerates the connection with the healthcare community and TCU by its sponsorship of the TCU Evidence Based Practice and Research Collaborative.

By: Audrea Eichman, Schieffer School of Journalism
Amy McGuire contributed to this article