About the Authors

BERNADETTE MAZUREK MELNYK, PhD, RN, CPNP/PMHNP, FAANP, FNAP, FAAN Bernadette Melnyk is Associate Vice President for Health Promotion, University Chief Wellness Officer, and Professor and Dean of the College of Nursing at The Ohio State University. She also is Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Psychiatry at Ohio State’s College of Medicine. Melnyk earned her bachelor of science in nursing degree from West Virginia University; her master of science in nursing, specializing in nursing care of children as a pediatric nurse practitioner, from the University of Pittsburgh; and her PhD in clinical research from the University of Rochester, where she also completed her post-master’s certificate as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. She is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in evidence-based practice, intervention research, child and adolescent mental health, and health and wellness and is a frequent keynote speaker at national and international conferences on these topics. Melnyk has consulted with numerous healthcare systems and colleges throughout the United States and world on how to improve quality of care and patient outcomes through implementing and sustaining evidence-based practice. She has received more than $19 million in sponsored funding from federal agencies as principal investigator and has more than 280 publications. Melnyk is co-editor of four books: Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing & Healthcare: A Guide to Best Practice; Implementing Evidence-Based Practice: Real-Life Success Stories; A Practical Guide to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Screening, Early Intervention, and Health Promotion (2nd ed.); and Intervention Research: Designing, Conducting, Analyzing and Funding. Melnyk is an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Nursing, the National Academies of Practice, and the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. She served a 4-year term on the 16-member United States Preventive Services Task Force and currently serves as a member of the National Quality Forum (NQF) Behavioral Health Standing Committee and the National Institutes of Health National Advisory Council for Nursing Research. Melnyk is also Editor of the journal Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing and is a board member of U.S. Healthiest, the National Guideline Clearinghouse, and the National Quality Measures Clearinghouse.

Melnyk has received numerous national and international awards, including the Audrey Hepburn Award, Mary Tolle Wright Excellence in Leadership Award, and International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame Award from Sigma Theta Tau International; the Jessie Scott Award from the American Nurses Association for the improvement of healthcare quality through the integration of research, education, and practice; the 2012 Midwest Nursing Research Society Senior Scientist award; the NIH/National Institute of Nursing Research inaugural director’s lectureship award; and the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties Lifetime Achievement Award. She also has been recognized twice as an Edge Runner by the American Academy of Nursing for founding and directing the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners KySS child and adolescent mental health program and her COPE Program for parents of preterm infants.

Melnyk recently founded the National Interprofessional Education and Practice Collaborative to advance the DHHS Million Hearts initiative to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes by 2017. She also founded and is serving as the first President of the National Consortium for Building Healthy Academic Communities, a collaborative organization to improve population health in U.S. institutions of higher learning.

LYNN GALLAGHER-FORD, PHD, RN, DPFNAP, NE-BC

Lynn Gallagher-Ford is Director of the Center for Transdisciplinary Evidence-based Practice (CTEP) and Clinical Associate Professor in the College of Nursing at The Ohio State University. Gallagher-Ford earned her bachelor of science in nursing degree from Binghamton University, her master of science degree with a specialization in nursing administration from Widener University, her postgraduate certificate in nursing administration from Villanova University, and her PhD from Widener University. Gallagher-Ford is nationally certified as a nurse executive. Her clinical background in maternal-child health and nursing administration spanned 28 years; she served in a variety of roles that ranged from bedside clinician to Chief Nursing Officer. Gallagher-Ford has extensive experience and expertise in teaching and implementing evidence-based practice (EBP) in real-world clinical settings. Most recently, she has been an integral part of EBP centers at two large universities, where her work has been dedicated to research, education, and consultation focused on development, promotion, implementation, and sustainability of EBP in academic and clinical settings. In her current role as director of CTEP, she leads a world-renowned, groundbreaking enterprise that generates and disseminates cutting-edge research about EBP, developing and delivering innovative programs and resources to promote effective integration and sustainability of EBP in clinical and academic settings to improve healthcare quality and patient and family outcomes. Gallagher-Ford is active as a consultant, facilitator, panelist, and keynote presenter at national and international conferences and education programs.

She is co-author of three recent studies conducted with Bernadette Melnyk that have dramatically impacted the current body of knowledge about EBP and influenced strategic imperatives to address new challenges: a national survey of nurse executives that assessed current realities related to organizational priorities, EBP attributes and investment, benchmark metrics, and outcomes; a Delphi study that established essential EBP competencies for practicing registered nurses and advanced practice nurses; and a survey of U.S. nurses that revealed an updated assessment of the state of EBP.

Gallagher-Ford was a lead author in the American Journal of Nursing EBP series, which received the Sigma Theta Tau International Publication Award for 2011. She is editor of the column “Implementing and Sustaining EBP in Real World Healthcare Settings” in Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, which features best evidence-based strategies and innovative ideas on how to promote and sustain evidence-based practices and cultures in clinical organizations. Gallagher-Ford was inducted into the Nursing Academy of the National Academies of Practice as a Distinguished Practitioner and Fellow in 2013.

ELLEN FINEOUT-OVERHOLT, PHD, RN, FNAP, FAAN

Ellen Fineout-Overholt is a nationally and internationally recognized nursing leader, educator, and promoter of evidence-based practice (EBP), innovation, and leadership. She earned her PhD in clinical research from the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York; her master of science in cardiovascular nursing from the University of Alabama in Birmingham, Alabama; and her bachelor of science in nursing degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas. Fineout-Overholt is the Mary Coulter Dowdy Distinguished Nursing Professor in the College of Nursing & Health Sciences at the University of Texas at Tyler. In this role, she realizes her passion for fostering inquiry and wonder in learners, whether they are novices or experts. She teaches and mentors undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students in EBP and partners with community healthcare systems to advance EBP as the lived experience of every healthcare provider and patient.

As Dean of the Frank S. Groner Endowed Memorial School of Professional Studies at East Texas Baptist University and Clinical Professor and Director of the Center for the Advancement of Evidence-Based Practice at Arizona State University (ASU), she worked with faculty and students to revise curriculum to meet the national mandate for inclusion of EBP in health professions education as well as with community partners to implement EBP. During her tenure at ASU, she and her team fostered the growth of more than 300 EBP mentors, who are transforming healthcare across the globe. She also developed the first graduate certificate in EBP in the United States, which graduated 14 Expert EBP Mentors—4 of whom are contributors to this book. Her career has been devoted to building a critical mass of young leaders in nursing who will advance EBP and thereby transform healthcare. To that end, Fineout-Overholt led a team of EBP experts in writing the award-winning, widely acclaimed “EBP Step-by-Step Series” in the American Journal of Nursing, which is designed to demystify the EBP paradigm and process for point-of-care clinicians. She has been instrumental in the ongoing development of the Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt Advancing Research & Clinical practice through close Collaboration (ARCC) model that guides implementation of EBP in the service sector. Out of her commitment to the paradigm shift to EBP as the foundation for healthcare education, she co-edited the first “Teaching EBP” column in Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing. In addition, she developed the Fineout-Overholt & Melnyk ARCC-E model that guides integration of EBP into academic curricula. Fineout-Overholt is co-author with Melnyk of the bestselling, award-winning book Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing & Healthcare: A Guide to Best Practice, now in its third edition, as well as Implementing Evidence-Based Practice: Real-Life Success Stories, which offers examples about how, when, where, who, and why EBP is so important to healthcare. Throughout her career, Fineout-Overholt has intentionally focused on a grassroots approach to advancing EBP. She has published extensively on EBP and has received numerous honors in recognition of her contributions to nursing, including election as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and the National Academies of Practice. She serves on the editorial boards of Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing and Research and Theory for Nursing Practice.