Evidence-Based Practice Nursing Conference April 7

Nurses, nursing students and other healthcare professionals will learn more about how the best evidence can improve patient care and safety at the Evidence-Based Practice "Taking Evidence to the Bedside" conference on Wednesday, April 7 at Illinois State University. The fourth annual evidence-based practice conference will run from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Bone Student Center Brown Ballroom.

The conference, co-presented by the Xi Pi chapter of the Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society of Nursing at Illinois State's Mennonite College of Nursing and Advocate Health Care, will focus on how nurses and other healthcare professionals at all levels can use evidence-based practice methods to improve patient care and safety in all healthcare settings. Evidence-based practice is a decision-making process for patient care that integrates the best available research, clinical expertise and information on individual patient characteristics.

The conference keynote speaker will be Thomas S. Ahrens, RN DNS CCNS FAAN, Research Scientist at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. Ahrens has lectured both nationally and internationally on critical care topics and has been widely published in the application of technology to clinical practice. He is also a strong advocate for hospitalized families and has published a research paper that demonstrated how improving communication with high risk patient families can improve both outcome and costs control.

Other Central Illinois Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society in Nursing chapters serving as conference co-presenters are the Theta Pi chapter at Illinois Wesleyan University College of Nursing and the Epsilon Epsilon chapter at Bradley University's Department of Nursing.