Part III. Reenvisioning Undergraduate Nursing Students as Opinion Leaders to Diffuse Evidence-Based Practice in Clinical Settings

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Rogers's claims about the importance of social networks to the diffusion of innovations are reviewed in light of efforts to promote evidence-based practice (EBP) among nursing students and practicing nurses. We argue that nursing educators can take more deliberate advantage of the essentially social nature of the diffusion process by devising opportunities for nursing students to form meaningful social interactions with practicing nurses. We recommend curricular reforms that reenvision undergraduate nursing students as opinion leaders throughout the curriculum. Rogers's theory predicts that such ongoing interactions between nursing students and practicing nurses will better integrate EBP among both populations.

Section snippets

Diffusion of Innovations as a Social Process

After weighing the evidence emerging from more than 50 years of diffusion research, Rogers (1995) observed that any innovation is diffused within a social context that plays a significant role in the speed and extensiveness of that diffusion. Rogers concluded that “diffusion is a fundamentally social process” (p. 34). In addition to the empirical evidence derived from a multitude of diffusion studies, Rogers's ideas about the social dimension of innovation adoption are also informed by social

Students' Role as Opinion Leaders

Probably the largest obstacle to envisioning undergraduate nursing students (and recent nursing-school graduates) as opinion leaders is the fact that they occupy the lowest position in the social hierarchy both in academic settings and in the clinical settings in which they complete their externships. Conceiving of undergraduates as opinion leaders contradicts Rogers's observation that opinion leaders tend to have higher socioeconomic status than that of their followers. However, in the case of

Discussion

If Rogers's theory makes anything clear, it is that innovations are diffused at the grassroots level by members operating within a community. Most organizational schemes to promote EBP among practicing nurses have focused on top–down initiatives by nursing leaders (administrators of health care organizations and nursing school faculty) Dobbins et al., 2002, Dufault, 2001, Karkos and Peters, 2006. For example, Hallas and Melnyk (2003) and Ciliska, Pinelli, DiCenso, and Cullum (2001) have

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