Bridging the Gap: From Research to Policy [on the NLM Blog]

Bridging the Gap: From Research to Policy

"As a health services researcher, I have always been interested in how to bridge the divide between research and policy. I constantly ask myself, “Which of my research questions will inform today’s most pressing policy debates?” and “How can I teach the next generation of nurse scientists to conduct policy-relevant research?” I recently left my academic position and spent a year working on Capitol Hill as one of eight 2018 –2019 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellows. In this blog, I offer a few key lessons from my time as a fellow that influenced my scholarship."   Read the full guest post by Ellen T. Kurtzman, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN, associate professor, School of Nursing, The George Washington University.

This article took on special meaning for me since I've rejoined our nurse practice council helping to set policies statewide.   The importance of translating research into practice and the current gap between the two is real.  Point-of-care tools like Nursing Reference Center Plus certainly help because their nursing skills / procedures are always current, and they offer the current state-of-the art in their evidence care sheets.  But it's still a challenge translating the evidence into practice.  Here's a road map for making that happen.