Studies investigating factors contributing to improved quality of care have found that effective team member communication is among the most critical and influential aspects in the delivery of quality care. Relatively little research has examined the role of the physical design of nursing units on communication patterns among care providers. Although the concept of decentralized unit design is intended to increase patient safety, reduce nurse fatigue, and control the noisy, chaotic, and crowded space associated with centralized nursing stations, until recently little attention has been paid to how such nursing unit designs affected communication patterns or other medical and organizational outcomes. Using a pre/post research design comparing more centralized or decentralized unit designs with a new multi-hub design, the aim of this study was to describe the relationship between the clinical spatial environment and its effect on communication patterns, nurse satisfaction, distance walked, organizational outcomes, patient safety, and patient satisfaction. Hospital institutional data indicated that patient satisfaction increased substantially. Few significant changes were found in communication patterns; no significant changes were found in nurse job satisfaction, patient falls, pressure ulcers, or organizational outcomes such as average length of stay or patient census.

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Although evidence-based practice (EBP) began as a challenge to the medical profession in the early 1970s, the concept has since been embraced by nursing and other health care professions. Although it is clear that the process of placing evidence into practice will continue to be refined, the mandate to do so is clear. The purpose of this article is to present a brief history of the definition of EBP, describe some of the more well-known models of knowledge translation, discuss some of the commonly agreed-upon steps in the EBP process, and present some resources that might be useful for readers.

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