The Ottawa Model of Research Use: a guide to clinical innovation in the NICU

To improve performance of a neonatal transport team by implementing a research-based family assessment instrument. Objectives included providing a structure for evaluating families and fostering the healthcare relationship.

Neonatal transports are associated with family crises. Transport teams require a comprehensive framework to accurately assess family responses to adversity and tools to guide their practice toward parental mastery of the event. Currently, there are no assessment tools that merge family nursing expertise with neonatal transport.

A family assessment tool grounded in contemporary family nursing theory and research was developed by a clinical nurse specialist. The Ottawa Model of Research Use guided the process of piloting the innovation with members of a transport team. Focus groups, interviews, and surveys were conducted to create profiles of barriers and facilitators to research use by team members. Tailored research transfer strategies were enacted based on the profile results.

Formative evaluations demonstrated improvements in team members' perceptions of their knowledge, family centeredness, and ability to assess and intervene with families. The family assessment tool is currently being incorporated into Clinical Practice Guidelines for Transport and thus will be considered standard care.

Use of a family assessment tool is an effective way of appraising families and addressing suffering. The Ottawa Model of Research Use provided a framework for implementing the clinical innovation.

A key role of the clinical nurse specialist is to influence nursing practice by fostering research use by practitioners. When developing and implementing a clinical innovation, input from end users and consumers is pivotal. Incorporating the innovation into a practice guideline provides a structure to imbed research evidence into practice.