Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #109322

Roberta L. Lyons, MPH, CHES¹, Josephine L. Dorsch, MALS, AHIP², Kathleen A. Baldwin, PhD, RN¹, Sallie Klipp, MS, SLP, MLIS², Sandra DeGroote, MLIS, AHIP², Kristin Hitchcock, MSI², Margaret L. Beaman, RN, PhD³, Rita E. Arras, RN, PhD³, Kathy Behm, PhD⁴, and Thea Chesley, MA, MSLIS⁵. (1) College of Nursing, Peoria Regional Program, University of Illinois at Chicago, One Illini Drive, Box 1649, Peoria, IL 61656-1649, (309)495-8164, bobbil@uic.edu, (2) Library of the Health Sciences - Peoria, University of Illinois at Chicago, One Illini Dr., Box 1649, Peoria, IL 61656-1649, (3) School of Nursing, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Room 2339, Edwardsville, IL 62026-1066, (4) Library & Information Services, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, Box 1063, Edwardsville, IL 62026, (5) Training and Resource Center, Illinois Department of Public Health, 828 S. Second St, Room 102, Springfield, IL 62704-2650

The purpose of this paper is to articulate the goals of the “Evidence Base in Public Health Nursing” (EBPHN) project funded by the National Library of Medicine to improve statewide public health nurses' access to the evidence base for public health nursing and increase their knowledge and skills to evaluate the evidence. The need to improve access to and understanding of this evidence base was identified by a state-wide collaborative of academic and practicing public health nurses. With the information explosion on the Internet, accessibility to evidence is available, but to such a degree that strong navigational skills are required to locate authoritative evidence. Therefore, project personnel created a) an EBPHN web site with instructional modules for increasing knowledge of and skill level in literature retrieval and critical appraisal; b) a database to disseminate integrative literature reviews conducted by public health nursing graduate students from various universities throughout the state; and c) a desktop reference and document delivery services for public health nurses not affiliated with a health science library. Ultimately, as public health nurses discover the ease of accessing, retrieving, and applying the evidence to their practice, the informational gap will decrease, thereby improving interventions used to promote healthy lifestyles for communities served.

Learning Objectives:

• • Identify two goals of the Evidence Base in Public Health Nursing project.
• • Summarize the methodology used to provide public health nurses' access to the evidence base.
• • Identify the EBPHN web site as a tool to access, retrieve, and evaluate the evidence base in public health nursing.

Keywords: Public Health Nursing, Evidence Based Practice

Related Web page: ebphn.lib.uic.edu

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation