School of Nursing Guide

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) created the Evidence-based Practice Centers (EPCs) in 1997 to conduct evidence reports for the Effective Health Care (EHC) Program. In December 2019, the latest 5-year contracts were awarded to 9 EPCs.

The EPCs are housed at universities, medical centers, and research institutions in the United States. The EPCs produce evidence reports on medications, devices, and other health care services for the EHC Program with the goal of helping consumers, health care professionals, and policymakers make informed and evidence-based health care decisions.

Each EPC is made up of medical researchers from a broad range of clinical health and scientific backgrounds. The people who conduct research at the EPCs are medical doctors, pharmacy doctors, psychologists, physical therapists, and other medical specialists. In addition, they are also trained in different types of health research such as epidemiology, health services research, and organizational change research.

AHRQ's Evidence-based Practice Centers

• Brown University, Center for Evidence-based Medicine  Providence, RI – Thomas Trikalinos, M.D., and Ethan M. Balk, M.D., M.Sc.
• ECRI – Penn Medicine Evidence-based Practice Center  Plymouth Meeting, PA – Amy Y. Tsou, M.D., and Jonathan R. Treadwell, Ph.D.
• Johns Hopkins University  Baltimore, MD – Eric B. Bass, M.D., M.P.H., and Karen A. Robinson, Ph.D.
• Kaiser Permanente Evidence-based Practice Center  Portland, OR – Jennifer S. Lin, M.D., M.C.R., FACP, and Elizabeth A. O'Connor, Ph.D.
• Mayo Clinic Evidence-based Practice Center  Rochester, MN – M. Hassan Murad, M.D., M.P.H.
• Minnesota Evidence-based Practice Center  Minneapolis, MN – Mary E. Butler, Ph.D., MBA, and Timothy J. Wilt, M.D., M.P.H.
• Pacific Northwest Evidence-based Practice Center  Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR – Roger Chou, M.D.
• RTI-UNC Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC)   Chapel Hill, NC – Meera Viswanathan, Ph.D.
• Southern California Evidence-based Practice Center  Los Angeles, CA – Susanne Hempel, Ph.D.

THE ESSENTIALS: CORE COMPETENCIES FOR PROFESSIONAL NURSING EDUCATION

AACN Core Competencies

Evidence-Based Practice

• The delivery of optimal health care requires the integration of current evidence and clinical expertise with individual and family preferences. Evidence-based practice is a problem-solving approach to the delivery of health care that integrates best evidence from studies and patient care data with clinician expertise and patient preferences and values (Melnyk, Fineout-Overhold, Stillwell, & Williamson, 2010). In addition there is a need to consider those scientific studies that ask: whose perspectives are solicited, who creates the evidence, how is that evidence created, what questions remain unanswered, and what harm may be created? Answers to these questions are paramount to incorporating meaningful, culturally safe, evidence-based practice (Nursing Mutual Aid, 2020).

This excellent tutorial on Evidence-Based Practice is created by the University of Minnesota Libraries 2007.