Implementation Science & Evidence-Based Practice
The methods that get evidence into practice, and the models used to structure and evaluate that work: evidence-based practice models such as the Iowa Model, JHNEBP and ARCC, implementation-science frameworks including CFIR, RE-AIM, PARIHS, PRECEDE-PROCEED and the Theoretical Domains Framework, implementation strategies and the ERIC taxonomy, hybrid effectiveness-implementation designs, implementation outcomes, de-implementation, and knowledge translation and dissemination planning. Written for researchers and practice leads designing or reporting implementation work rather than reading about it.
Guides
Pathway to Excellence vs. Magnet: How the Two Nursing Designations Differ
Pathway to Excellence and Magnet measure different things and ask for different evidence — what each ANCC program actually requires, and the size/resource factors that point an organization toward one or the other.
Realist Evaluation: Context-Mechanism-Outcome (CMO) Configurations
A guide to realist evaluation’s context-mechanism-outcome (CMO) configuration logic: how it differs from outcome-only evaluation, and a worked example.
Implementation Mapping: The Five-Task Process for Designing Implementation Strategies
Implementation Mapping runs implementation-strategy design through five tasks that match each strategy to a documented determinant rather than convention, using matrices of change objectives to make the selection auditable.
The Stetler Model of Research Utilization
The Stetler Model runs one practitioner through five phases — Preparation, Validation, Comparative Evaluation/Decision-Making, Translation/Application, Evaluation — to decide whether to act on research evidence alone, without a team or organizational pilot. This guide walks all five phases, a worked comparative-evaluation example, and how Stetler differs from Iowa, JHNEBP, ARCC and CFIR.
The ARCC Model: How EBP Mentors Drive Evidence-Based Practice Implementation
The ARCC (Advancing Research and Clinical practice through close Collaboration) model implements evidence-based practice through EBP mentors and an organisational culture-and-readiness assessment, not a decision pathway or appraisal cycle. This guide covers the mentor role, the OCRS readiness instrument, how the ARCC cycle runs, and how it compares to the Iowa Model and JHNEBP.
Normalization Process Theory: Why Interventions Become Routine (or Don’t)
How Normalization Process Theory’s four constructs — coherence, cognitive participation, collective action, reflexive monitoring — diagnose why an intervention becomes routine or doesn’t, with a worked example.
The ACE Star Model of Knowledge Transformation: The 5-Point Cycle
The ACE Star Model organizes evidence-based practice as five successive forms knowledge passes through—Discovery, Summary, Translation, Integration, Evaluation—rather than a decision pathway or appraisal process. This guide walks each transformation point and shows where Iowa, JHNEBP, CFIR, and RE-AIM attach to the same cycle.
Building a Programme Logic Model That Survives Evaluation
Most logic models fail at evaluation time not because the inputs-activities-outputs-outcomes-impact chain is wrong, but because each stage got filled with a description instead of a countable indicator. This guide covers the vagueness trap, the four tests a measurable indicator has to pass, and a full worked example.
The CDC Framework for Program Evaluation in Public Health: The 6 Steps and 4 Standards
CDC’s six-step framework treats stakeholder engagement as gating, not a formality, then sequences describing the program, focusing the design, gathering evidence, justifying conclusions, and ensuring use — filtered throughout by four standards: utility, feasibility, propriety, and accuracy.
Choosing an Evidence-Based Practice Model for Your Organisation
Iowa, JHNEBP, PRECEDE-PROCEED, RE-AIM, and CFIR answer five different questions. This guide is a decision framework, not another model walkthrough: which one fits depends on what kind of question you are asking, where you are in the intervention timeline, and whether you need a built-in evidence-appraisal tool.
Johns Hopkins Nursing EBP Model: The PET Process and Evidence Appraisal Tools
The Johns Hopkins Nursing EBP model runs on a three-phase PET process (Practice question, Evidence, Translation) and two dedicated appraisal tools that rate each source’s evidence Level and Quality — a different structure from the Iowa Model’s decision-gate pathway.
The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR): The 5 Domains as a Coding Framework
CFIR organizes the contextual barriers and facilitators an implementation runs into across five domains. This guide covers the 2022 domain names and constructs, works through a full worked coding example, and is explicit about where CFIR stops and RE-AIM or the Iowa Model picks up.
The Iowa Model of Evidence-Based Practice: The Full Decision Pathway
The Iowa Model of Evidence-Based Practice is a decision pathway, not a checklist: a trigger moves through explicit go/no-go gates, with two feedback loops, on its way to an adopted practice change. This guide walks the full pathway—triggers, decision points, and both loops—and distinguishes it from RE-AIM (evaluation) and PRECEDE-PROCEED (planning).
The PRECEDE-PROCEED Model: What Each of the 8 Phases Produces, and How It Differs From RE-AIM
PRECEDE-PROCEED is an eight-phase framework for planning and evaluating health and social-behavior programmes: four assessment phases (social, epidemiological/behavioral/environmental, educational/ecological, administrative/policy) that diagnose what to target and why, followed by implementation and three evaluation phases (process, impact, outcome) that check whether it worked. This guide covers what each phase actually produces as a planning artifact, works through an illustrative example, and distinguishes the model from RE-AIM, which evaluates an intervention that already exists rather than diagnosing what to build.
RE-AIM Framework: How to Measure Each of the Five Dimensions
RE-AIM gives each of its five dimensions a different denominator, and Reach vs. Adoption is where that trips people up most. This guide gives a concrete, measurable indicator for each dimension, a side-by-side denominator table, and covers the PRISM extension and how to report RE-AIM in a paper.
