Background: The Army Nurse Corps released the Patient CaringTouch System (PCTS) in April, 2011. One task within the initiative of shared accountability, the foundational component of the system, includes the Unit Practice Councils’ development of evidence-based practice (EBP) innovations. Problem: In an Army medical treatment facility located in the Southeastern United States, internal assessments demonstrated nursing staff lack understanding of EBP implementation and are not confident in their EBP beliefs. The purpose of this project was to provide EBP education and potentially strengthen nursing staff’s evidence-based practice beliefs. Methods and EBP Framework: The evidence-based practice education project was comprised of a lecture with a subsequent perpetual electronic journal club. The lecture provided the nursing staff with information on the process of EBP implementation using the Unit Practice Council (UPC) structure embedded in the Patient CaringTouch System. This project as well as the journal club employed the steps of Larrabee’s Model for Evidence-Based Practice Change to train nursing staff on the process of EBP implementation. The author, serving as an EBP mentor, conducted the electronic journal club and provided continuous education and guidance on the EBP implementation for the proposed practice innovations of the organization’s UPCs. Theoretical Considerations: Application Fawcett and Russell’s Conceptual Model of Nursing and Health Policy identified the obligation to the beneficiaries of the Army Medical Department as the impetus for the initiation of EBP implementation. the PCTS was the vehicle the Command chose to update nursing practice. Adoption of the Patient CaringTouch System and EBP implementation required a significant organizational culture change. This process was assessed and facilitated by using Roger’s Diffusion of Innovations change theory. Results and Conclusions: The EBP Belief Scale assesses a patient’s strength of beliefs in evidence-based practice. Participants in the project completed the scale prior to receiving any evidence-based practice education and again after participation in both the lecture and the journal club. The pre-and post-educational means were compared using the Paired t-test and demostrated the EBP educational project did not increase the 30 participants’ strength of beliefs in evidence-based practice.
