Empowering Frontline Nurses as Implementation Science Leaders: The EQUIP Model for Evidence-Based Practice...

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Implementation Science
• Healthcare Quality Improvement

Background:

• Sustaining evidence-based practice (EBP) in nursing is challenged by systemic and workforce barriers.
• Implementation science (IS) provides structured methods for EBP integration.
• Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 necessitates scalable nurse-led models to bridge the research-to-practice gap.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the Evidence-Based Quality Improvement Project (EQUIP), a nurse-led model.
• Assess EQUIP's implementation by frontline implementation lead (IL) nurses.
• Examine the effectiveness of IS principles in a nursing context.

Main Methods:

• Mixed-methods formative evaluation across multiple healthcare facilities.
• Utilized two illustrative nurse-led quality improvement (QI) projects.
• Data collected from QI documentation, clinical metrics, and researcher field notes.

Main Results:

• EQUIP facilitated the application of EBP in routine nursing care.
• The model demonstrated adaptability across diverse healthcare settings.
• Key barriers included inconsistent engagement and competing workload demands, highlighting the need for structured support.

Conclusions:

• EQUIP is a scalable initiative utilizing IS to embed EBP in nursing.
• Nurse-led models are effective for EBP integration.
• Sustained implementation of EBP requires robust institutional support.