Demonstration Sites
A key feature in the Best Practice Statement Development process is the contribution made by the project demonstration sites. These are practice areas in which draft BPSs are tested, to ensure that the guidance is realistic and achievable by practising nurses and their team colleagues.
Each Best Practice Statement has at least one associated demonstration site. These are selected to reflect the spectrum of healthcare provision and include:
- public and independent sector
- hospital and community services
- rehabilitation, continuing care, primary care and acute care
The process of testing the Best Practice Statements is similar in each demonstration site. The model involves baseline audit of current practice, action planning and facilitated practice development using an inclusive approach. An outcome audit is undertaken after six months and the findings from this, together with the experiences of the nurses, older people, their carers and other team members are relayed to the Community of Practice. These are then used to refine the final draft of the Best Practice Statement prior to it being sent for wide consultation.
In using this approach there is recognition that the final agreed version of the Best Practice Statement truly represents an attainable level of care.
The members of the Community of Practice have access to the demonstration site staff through the virtual college. The dynamic sharing of experiences is an inherent part of the practice development process and benefits both the demonstration sites and the individual CoP members. Recording and archiving the processes of demonstrating a BPS, in addition to providing access to relevant products such as audit tools and care plans, is an important learning resource. The Gerontological Nursing Demonstration Project continues to explore and develop the most effective ways to achieve this.
