The implementation of an evidence based nursing project requires the participation of several stakeholders with diverse interests and personal orientations (Bohnenkamp, Pelton, Rishel, & Kurtin, 2014). Indeed, as demonstrated by Gallagher-Ford, Fineout-Overholt, Melnyk, and Stillwell (2011), it is important for nursing professionals to engage key stakeholders to a project in order to minimize barriers and enhance success during the implementation phase. This paper focuses on not only identifying the stakeholders to the evidence based project on weight reduction through motivational interviewing, but also discussing potential barriers to project implementation and how these challenges could be prevented.
Key Stakeholders
The key stakeholders to the project include general practitioners (GPs), practice nurse professionals, practice managers, clinical psychologists, local health officials, nutritionists, and religious leaders. The participation of GPs is critical in the evaluation phase of participants who will be assigned to the intervention phase. It is important that these participants are assessed for other preexisting medical conditions and also to be medically ascertained as obese.
Practice nurse professionals are critical to the success of this project as they will be responsible for measuring the weight of participants using a calibrated digital weight scale to optimize the accuracy of body weight measurements. Similarly, the participation of practice managers is important, particularly within the context of providing leadership and planning for easy access to resources in the health care setting.
Trained clinical psychologists will be the engine of the project by virtue of their role in conducting motivational interviews with participants in the intervention group with the view to changing their eating habits and modifying their lifestyles. Similarly, local government health officials are expected to provide documents on the trends of obesity among the population and how various interventionist strategies have performed over the years, while nutritionists will work with clinical psychologists in developing nutritional and dietary information to be imparted to participants through motivational interviewing. Lastly, the participation of religious leaders is important for the project as they are better placed to disseminate critical weight-related information to the wider population.
Potential Barriers and Strategies to Solve Them
The stakeholders discussed above are likely to form an interdisciplinary team as they come from diverse backgrounds and have different skills and competencies. Some of the barriers emanating from such interdisciplinary and interprofessional teams, according to Altin, Passon, Kautz-Freimuth, Berger, and Stock (2015), include communication problems, attitudinal issues, lack of trust among stakeholders, and lack of collaboration. These barriers have the potential to derail the project, hence the need to ensure that they are adequately addressed.
Some of the strategies that could be used to engage stakeholders and address these barriers include spending time and effort with them in order to develop the needed trust, taking time to understand their interests and motivating factors, soliciting their input in making important decisions about the evidence based project, attempting to connect with all stakeholders in a mutually respectable and collaborative way, and enhancing proactive engagement in developing metrics and outcomes to be measured throughout the project’s life-course (Gallagher-Ford et al., 2011).
Conclusion
This paper has identified the key stakeholders to the evidence based project, discussed potential barriers to project implementation, and provided several strategies that could be used to address the identified barriers. Since the stakeholders will form an interdisciplinary team during the project’s implementation, it is important to have adequate knowledge on how to solve the problems associated with such types of intergroup formations.
References
Altin, S., Passon, A., Kautz-Freimuth, S., Berger, B., & Stock, S. (2015). A qualitative study on barriers to evidence-based practice in patient counseling and advocacy in Germany. BMC Health Services Research, 15(1), 1-9. doi: 10.1186/s12913-015-0979-9.
Bohnenkamp, S., Pelton, N., Rishel, C.J., & Kurtin, S. (2014). Implementing evidence-based practice using an interprofessional team approach. Oncology Nursing Forum, 41(4), 434-437. doi: 10.1188/14.ONF.434-437.
Gallagher-Ford, L., Fineout-Overholt, E., Melnyk, B.M., & Stillwell, S.B. (2011). Implementing an evidence-based practice change: Beginning the transformation from an idea to reality. American Journal of Nursing, 111(3), 54-60. Web.