Now that autumn has begun, it's time to finalize the sessions and workshops that you plan to attend at the HEALTHCARE DESIGN Conference coming up next month in Phoenix.

There are many pre-conference workshop opportunities this year, but only two from The Center for Health Design (CHD) are focused specifically on evidence-based design (EBD) concepts: W01 Practice EBD Clinic and W06 EBD Glossary Workshop.

You may be wondering what the differences are between each workshop so you can figure out which one best meets your learning needs.

The world of healthcare continues to incorporate EBD criteria into many project decisions, from architecture and design plans to purchasing products. But you may be feeling challenged about how to incorporate EBD into your practice. This is where a good coach can make all the difference, and the Practice EBD Clinic provides just that.

Expert EBD coaches, who are leaders in the industry, are paired with clinic participants according to the participant’s needs and interests, based on the results of a brief questionnaire completed by each participant prior to the clinic.

The clinic includes brief presentations about key EBD processes, followed by small group discussions and individual sessions with your coach. This is the time where coaches work one-on-one with participants to help them integrate EBD concepts and activities into current and future projects.

Clinic attendees leave with an EBD plan for their project. Below are a few of the "next-steps" that last year’s Practice EBD Clinic attendees identified. To hear more about the workshop from last year’s participants, click here.

  • “I will use the EBD process to structure a conversation with senior leaders around project goals.”
  • “I will collaborate with finance and clinical operations to create the business case—it is not just about throughput.”
  • “I will integrate EBD and culture change with technology as a bridging tool.”
  • “I will use the EBD process to help me validate assumptions on a project—find out what key questions or problems we are solving.”

Developing any evidence-based discipline, like medicine or nursing practice, or healthcare design, requires the identification and definition of common terms used in both research and practice. A common glossary is an essential tool to help validate and support the broad use of the research results.

It's exactly this task that CHD began in 2009—the creation of an EBD glossary that includes healthcare environmental and outcome terms, along with the metrics and measures used to evaluate their relationship.

In the EBD Glossary Workshop, participants will learn about the first phase of this ongoing project, during which EBD research for seven high-priority topics was examined to identify environmental and healthcare outcomes terms, measures and metrics, which are summarized in the Evidence-Based Design Glossary.

The next phase of work to expand the glossary is underway; the results of which will be shared. In addition, participants will learn how the glossary is being used by CHD to create a searchable environmental research database.

This database will help users understand how specific environmental variables impact the safety and quality care for patients, the working conditions for staff, and the health and viability of organizations.

Attendees will learn how to review an EBD research article and create a research repository abstract. Participants will be invited to join the project team in 2013.

So, there you have it—two EBD workshops; one focused on the translation and integration of EBD concepts and processes for a project about which you have questions; and a second workshop where you can learn how to use the EBD Glossary and the CHD research database.

These tools will help you address specific environmental features and outcome measures in your practice. Please plan to join us for one of these sessions at HEALTHCARE DESIGN 2012! 

Eileen B. Malone, RN, MSN, MS, EDAC, is a member of The Center for Health Design Research Coalition.

 

 

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