Sharing the Road with Friends

Lynne Garner, PhD

As a funder of research that will “promote practical benefit for improving health,” Donaghue has an uphill road to climb. Sure, competently and ethically funding research is a big job, but it’s one that I think we’ve done fairly well. But funding the type of research that will lead to actually improving health and healthcare? Now that’s a far greater challenge.

As we work on this challenge, partnering with others who share this same passion is a real help. Though INQRI and Donaghue each have their own ways of developing new knowledge and learning how that knowledge can make an impact, we’ve found several ways to work together on those goals:

Host a Funders Form – The question of why knowledge from research doesn’t more readily get used by health care providers, systems and consumers is too frequently laid at the doorstep of researchers and their institutions. Certainly, there are a lot of answers to be found there, such as poorly aligned rewards and the heavily-resourced intervention being tested that can’t be sustained without a research grant. But funders need to look at themselves for answers, too. What expectations do we require or discourage that later impacts implementation? Are funding cycles too short to make a real impact? Do we focus on research that is more theory-driven than reality-driven? These are some of the themes explored during a two-day forum of over 20 funders hosted by INQRI and Donaghue in 2009.

Use Stakeholders – And speaking of how funders can shape their programs to enhance the uptake of research findings, INQRI was an innovator in requiring their researchers to work with practice and policy stakeholders through the course of the research project and beyond. The impact of these stakeholder’s perspectives is clear when INQRI researchers describe their work. Learned from INQRI’s example, Donaghue has incorporated stakeholders in our programs and review panels.

Try Out New Research Models – One of Donaghue’s goals is to work with others to test new ideas in grantmaking and health research. So we were delighted when RWJF and INQRI asked us to join the Future of Nursing Funders’ Community. By using an online portal and quick review of the proposals’ match with the program requirements, the community increases the efficiency of researchers applying for funds and of grantmakers looking to identify relevant opportunities.

A journey is always better if you can share the road with a friend, and Donaghue thanks INQRI for their work on these important issues. Donaghue welcomes - and I’ll bet INQRI does, too - others who want to work on them with us.

Lynne Garner, PhD, is the President and Trustee for the Donaghue Foundation. 

This post is part of our week-long blog carnival focused on the Medical Care supplement.  Click here to access all posts in this carnival.

Diffusion of New Ideas - What Works?

Looking for tips on how to successfully translate research into practice? Then join us one week from today for the next webinar in our Translation Series:

Diffusion of New Ideas - What Works?

Elizabeth Bradley, Ph.D., Yale University

April 7, 2010: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. EST

Click here to register.

The Translation Series is co-sponsored by the Donaghue Foundation. For more information on INQRI's collaboration with Donaghue, please visit the Funders Forum blog.

How do medical errors happen? And what can be done?

Millions of people suffer every year from mistakes in health care. In a presentation from the IHI Open School, Lucian Leape explains why those mistakes happen — and how to prevent them.

The INQRI program is committed to understanding and preventing medication errors. Several of our teams are focused on this important work:

• "Examining the Impact of Nursing Structures and Processes on Medication Errors"
  The Institute of Medicine noted that a hospital patient on average is subject to at least one medication error per day, making medication errors the most common cause of preventable adverse events. This interdisciplinary study, directed by Linda Flynn and Dong Suh from Rutgers University has been designed to disentangle the effects of nursing structures and care processes on non-intercepted medication errors in acute care hospitals. Click here to read a profile on Linda and her work.

• "Nursing-Pharmacy Collaboration on Medication Reconciliation: A Novel Approach to Information Management"
  Deficits in communication across the continuum of care in regards to medication use can place patients at serious risk for harm. This interdisciplinary team, directed by Linda Costa and Bob Feroli at Johns Hopkins Hospital is examining how to economically support direct care providers in medication reconciliation in order to facilitate safe transition to and from hospital and community. The team has evaluated the effectiveness of a nurse-pharmacist clinical information coordination team in improving drug information management on admission and discharge, quantify potential harm due to reconciliation failures, and determine cost-benefit related to averted harm. Click here to read “Nurse-Led Interdisciplinary Teams: Challenges and Rewards,” a piece co-authored by Linda and Stephanie Poe which ran last fall in the Journal of Nursing Care Quality’s Focus on Patient Safety column.

• "Empowering Home Care Nurses to Efficiently Resolve Medication Discrepancies"
  To contribute to a better understanding of the potential for home care nurses to lead in the identification and resolution of medication discrepancies during transitions between hospital and home care providers, this team at Washingon State University is conducting a clinical trial that investigates a new nurse-led, informatics-based intervention. They hypothesize that with this improvement in their environment, home care nurses already on staff can enhance patients' outcomes, reduce healthcare costs, and eliminate the need for duplicative services by external consultants or specialty providers. This team is co-led by Cynthia Corbett and Stephen Setter. Click here to read more about their project.

Recently, Drs. Flynn and Costa presented their work at the Funders Forum, co-sponsored by INQRI and the Donaghue Foundation. Click here to download their presentations.

For other programs from the IHI Open School, click here.

Creating Opportunities and Breaking Down Barriers to Adoption

On July 8 and 9, 2009, the Donaghue Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Intiative will host a health funders forum in Princeton, NJ. To promote this event, "Creating Opportunities and Breaking Down Barriers to Adoption," we have created a new blog: Bending the Curve.