The National Health and Medical Research Council’s National Institute of Clinical Studies (NICS) has awarded Evidence into Action prizes at key national health conferences, to identify and reward health care professionals who are working to implement evidence into clinical practice. The 2010 prizes were awarded for the accepted abstracts that best met the following criteria within the Australian context:
- Is the paper related to closing an important gap between the best available evidence and current clinical practice?
- Does the paper mention results of the practice change and how these were achieved or not?
- Does the paper mention barriers or enablers in implementing the practice change?
- Was implementation theory applied in the change process?
2010 NHMRC NICS Evidence into Action Prize for ACEM
The 2010 NHMRC NICS Evidence into Action Prize for the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) was awarded to Professor Anne-Maree Kelly at the ACEM 27th Annual Scientific Meeting. The abstract was titled A Clinical Network Project Improves Efficiency and Reduces Variability in Chest Pain Management in Victorian Emergency Departments. Additional authors were Jan Pannifex, Merrin Bamert and Professor George Braitberg on behalf of the Emergency Care Improvement and Innovation Clinical Network, Department of Health [Victoria].
This project demonstrated improvement by reducing length of stay in the emergency department and increased use of risk stratification for patients presenting with chest pain in 16 Victorian hospitals.
A copy of the winning abstract can be found using the link below.
2010 NHMRC NICS Evidence into Action Prize for CENA
The 2010 NHMRC NICS Evidence into Action Prize for the College of Emergency Nursing Australasia (CENA) was awarded to Robyn Mears and Kevin Crosdale from Cessnock Hospital at the 2010 CENA 8th International Conference for Emergency Nurses. The abstract was titled Nurse initiated thrombolysis in rural NSW. Additional authors are Toni McCallum-Pardey, Dawn McIvor, Lindsay Savage, & Professor Peter Fletcher from Hunter New England Health.
In Australia 32% of the population live outside major metropolitan centres with limited access to on-site medical officers. This situation frequently results in delayed urgent treatment. In response to this issue Hunter New England Health developed a nurse initiated thrombolysis protocol for STEMI (ST- elevation myocardial infarction) patients which has reduced door to needle times and demonstrated improved patient outcomes.
A copy of the winning abstract can be found using the link below.
From left to right: Di Crellin, Executive Director CENA; Kevin Crosdale,
Nursing Unit Manager, Emergency Department Cessnock Hospital;
Robyn Mears, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Emergency Department
Cessnock Hospital; Julie Finucane, Assoc Executive Director CENA.
Prize awarded in 2009
College of Emergency Nursing Australasia (CENA) 7th International Conference for Emergency Nursing.
Prize won by Margaret Villella at the Sandringham Hospital Emergency Department (Melbourne) for her paper Implementing a Burns Protocol into the Emergency Department.
A copy of this abstract can be found below.
Prizes awarded in 2008
- 25th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine, 23-27 November 2008, Wellington NZ. Bernard Yeoh, David Taylor and Simone Taylor from The Austin Hospital, Victoria. 'An intervention trial increases the evidence-based use of metoclopramide following morphine administration'.
- National Forum on Safety and Quality in Healthcare, Dr Raymond Chaseling, Ms Gabrielle O'Grady, Mr Ahmed Jamal and Ms Elizabeth Harnett from the Children's Hospital at Westmead. 'Evidence into Action: Reducing surgical site infections in paediatric neurosurgical patients'.
- WONCA Asia Pacific Regional Conference, Jeremy Bunker, Nicholas Zwar, Sanyjot Vagholkar, Sarah Dennis, Guy Marks and Alan Crockett, 'A project to assess the effectiveness and feasibility of case finding of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by practice nurses in general practice.'
- Royal College of Nursing Annual Conference, Trish Wilson and Vicki Flenady from Mater Hospital, Queensland. 'Implementing Best Practice Guidelines into Clinical Practice after Perinatal Loss'
- 3rd National Conference for Emergency Nurses (CENA), Suzanne Colby from the West Gippsland Healthcare Group. 'Improving Management of Acute Coronary Syndrome in the rural Emergency Department'.
- 3rd International Congress on Women's Mental Health, Sacha Filia, Amanda Baker, Robyn Richmond, David Castle, Frances Kay-Lambkin, Rebecca Sakrouge, Rachel Taylor, Dianne Harris, Anthony de Castella and Jayashri Kulkarni. 'The healthy lifestyles project: pilot data in women with psychosis'. To view their winning poster and paper, please click on the following links.
- 2008 General Practice and Primary Health Care Research Conference, Diane Arnold-Reed, Tom Brett, William Walker, Frances Cadden, Julie Young, Noelene Mora, Wendy Manae-Walley, Dana Hince, and Michele Caneppele. ' Progress in the Fremantle Primary Prevention study - a pilot study of risk factor modification for cardiovascular disease'. To view their winning poster, please click on the following link.