Overview
OSF HealthCare encourages nurses with research questions, study ideas or an interest in implementing or improving nursing practices through research to pursue these endeavors. To support these nurses, OSF HealthCare has collaborated with nursing faculty at our two colleges of nursing to create a Nursing Research/Evidence Based Practice (EBP) Council that represents all entities. The council reviews all Nursing and Allied Health projects conducted at OSF HealthCare that involve patients or nurses – as subjects or investigators – and require Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval. This excludes projects by OSF colleges of nursing students and those classified as clinical research, such as medical research or drug studies.
Members of the council:
- Serve as his or her local/regional contact for research and/or EBP projects
- Serve as site principle investigators for Ministrywide nursing research studies
- Provide educational activities related to EBP and/or research
- Serve as mentors for EBP fellows and novice nurse researchers
- Serve as mentors to nurses writing abstracts related to their IRB approved projects for podium/poster presentations at local, regional and national conferences
- Serve as mentors to nurses who are seeking to publish the work from their IRB-approved projects
Current Work
Nursing research studies and Implementation Science/EBP Projects in progress across the OSF Ministry as of September 2025 include:
- Assessment of Nurse’s Beliefs, Implementation Practices and Organizations Readiness to Engage in Evidence-Based Practice Activities within a Large Health Care System, Cooley, K., et al. OSF Ministry
- A Pilot Intervention Study to Promote Wellness in Advanced Practice Providers (APPs), Klein, C., OSF Ministry
- Ethics Education Supporting Acute and Post-Acute Nurse Leaders – 2nd Cohort, Williamson, J. & Klein, C., OSF Ministry
- Exploring Obstetric Nurses’ Experiences with Online Learning Education, Kupferschmid, M., Schnake, T., Freehill, S. & Emmerling S., OSF Ministry
- New Graduate Nurse Competency, Career Adaptability, and Career Planning. Does the Use of a Progressive Competency Onboarding Model (PCOM) Make a Difference? Emmerling, S. & Kupferschmid, M. OSF Ministry
- Patient-Specific Factors Associated with Hospital Acquired Pressure Injuries: A Replication Study. Emmerling, S. & Kupferschmid, M. OSF Ministry
- Professional Governance Education to Increased Bedside Nurses’ Perception of Their Voice in Shared Decision-Making. Kupferschmid, M., et al. OSF Ministry
- An Exploratory Study of the Nurses’ Social Media Use. Garcia, C., Liley, C., Pirie, S. & Burdette, K. Multi-site Study
- Building Resourceful Interactions Despite Grief and Stress Initiative (BRIDGES). Dickens, C., Knightly, E., Chicchelly, M. Matthews, C. & Halt, L. OSF HealthCare Little Company of Mary Medical Center
- The Impact of Nurse-Led Clinics with Concomitant Use of Elsevier Care Plans on Clinical and Financial Outcomes. Hamer, R. et al. OSF Multispecialty Group
- Incivility in Catholic-Based Nursing Education, Boney, L. & Miller, T. Saint Francis Medical Center College of Nursing
- Impact of a College-Hospital Collaboration on RN EBP Competency and Confidence. Rothrock-Magana, M., et al. OSF HealthCare Saint Anthony Medical Center