Philanthropy brings evidence-based practice to nursing at IU Health

“I learned a long time ago to hire the right people, then get out of their way,” said IU Health Executive Vice President and Chief Nurse Executive Jason Gilbert.

Kady Martini was one of those people.

“When I met Kady Martini, she was the unicorn candidate – her background and all of her skills and abilities,” Gilbert said. “She has worked on the academic side and on the practice side.”

Now the Vice President of Evidence-based Practice and implementation at IU Health, Martini includes as part of her job overseeing the Center for Nursing Excellence, an initiative made possible by a gift from Michelle Janney. A nurse by training, Janney retired as IU Health’s Chief Operating Officer.

In December, 80 nurse leaders from across IU Health were immersed in what Martini described as a semester-long master’s-level course condensed into five days of professional development. Martini spearheaded the training in just more than 100 days after she arrived at IU Health. The immersion was led by instructors from Helene Fuld Health Trust National Institute for Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing and Healthcare at The Ohio State University, Martini’s former employer. Over the next several years, Martini and Gilbert hope to bring 1,200 nurses from across the system through the same training.

“I like to say, ‘In God we trust, and everyone else must bring data,’” Martini said. “That’s how we need to start making decisions. This all comes back to the way we care for our patients. This, right here, is 100% how we achieve our mission, vision and values at IU Health.”

Along with the training, Martini and her team have launched a system-wide, statewide nursing research study in which 30% of IU Health’s 10,800 nurses will be surveyed.

“We’ll get a good read on our nurses as far as where they’re at with their knowledge, skills and confidence related to evidence-based practice,” Martini said. She expects the study to result in at least three published papers that will inform her work.

“This evidence-based practice immersion is intense, to be sure,” Gilbert said. “But I was confident in the training, because I know our nurses are smart and there’s a strong desire for it.”

Coming out of the immersion, Gilbert and Martini will focus on empowering nurses with the resources they need to implement what they learned.

“The very next week, I’m bringing the people who went through the training back to say ‘Where are you at? Who are your teams? What is the timeline moving forward?’” Martini said. “Every single month over the next year, I’ll meet with them to make sure these initiatives are built correctly so we can meet with our process people to say, ‘What do we need to put in place to make it easy for people to do the right things for our patients?’”

“You wouldn’t want me to teach this,” Gilbert said. “Kady is an expert. She trained with some of the world-renowned leaders in evidence-based practice. This is her area of expertise.”

As he let Martini lead the training, Gilbert focused on finding the next Michelle Janney who’s interested in funding this work. And he is putting his money where his mouth is: He issued a challenge to his Chief Nursing Officers to close out 2024, offering to match their donations up to $15,000 until the end of the year.

“I’m hoping for some help from the Foundation and donors to help fund some of this, so we can provide these resources going forward,” he said. “This is personal to me. It’s where I direct all my giving. I’ve been given a lot of great opportunities for career development, and this is my opportunity to pay it back.”

Are you interested in coming alongside Gilbert and Janney in their support of nurse excellence at IU Health? Make a gift to the IU Health Statewide Nurse Excellence Fund today.