Throughout the semester, we have been learning about evidenced based practice, and trying to start an initiate on our own. As a small team of students, my group searched existing literature to discover how culturally congruent images in patient education can lead to better adherence to treatment plans. While we did learn more about culturally competent care, we also became more familiar with how institutions implement knew practices based off of existing research, and the structures in place that facilitate those changes. As a future nurse, I would feel comfortable engaging in a QI or EBP initiate, now that I’ve been exposed to the terminology and the procedure for doing so. While I will certainly try to implement culturally competent care into my practice as a nurse, my experience with evidenced-based research can be applied to learning about a breadth of topics within the field of healthcare. I think this makes me more well-rounded moving to a more professional setting outside of the classroom.
As a team, we worked well together. Our process was to divide up work into individual pieces, and work on them together so we could provide feedback in real time. For example, we would write a paragraph or do an edit and then highlight the section so other people could read it over. We worked to set boundaries on what sort of work was acceptable to turn in, which can be hard when you’re working with friends. Our process really highlights the idea of individual cogs fitting together as one machine. We all turn together, even when we have our own individual parts.
As a team member, I learned more about leading by example and doing background work that would make it easier for my partners to get their job done. For example, I went found a lot of journal articles about culturally competent care so we would be better prepared for when we met with the research librarian. We were having trouble finding relevant articles and we wanted to show that we had really put our best foot forward before meeting with her.
