Spain's JBI Centre of Excellence celebrates 20 years!

Congratulations to The Spanish Centre for Evidence Based Nursing and Healthcare on celebrating 20 years with JBI!

The Spanish Centre for Evidence Based Nursing and Healthcare: A JBI Centre of Excellence is hosted by The Nursing and Healthcare Research Unit (Investén-isciii) at the?Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII). The focus of the unit lies in promoting and coordinating multidisciplinary research in healthcare to encourage knowledge transfer to clinical practice, so that the care provided in health institutions is of high quality and based on valid and reliable research results.

We asked Director Teresa Moreno-Casbas and Deputy Director Esther González-María to share some of the Centre's experiences and achievements during its time in the?JBI Collaboration?(JBIC) over the last 20 years.

What motivated you to join the JBIC??

Since we began increasing the number of nursing studies in Spain, we have been persuaded that the most important thing for patients is the application of scientific findings in clinical practice. Since 1996, our team has made various attempts to improve and promote research in nursing and healthcare, as well as to develop mechanisms that would allow the findings to be used clinically. We had information, we knew JBI, and we decided to participate in a conference in Melbourne in 2004. The JBIC's objective and primary strategy lines were extremely well aligned with the Spanish Nursing and Healthcare Research Unit's vision and interests.

What is unique about your JBI Centre of Excellence??

We are a national Centre with 17 regions, with representatives on the steering committee and we financially support the Centre. Within the Collaboration, we feel that we are the sole Centre with such characteristics. In 1997, Cordoba and Seville hosted the first JBI Director's Meeting/Symposium outside of Australia. As a result, it was decided that this would be done every two years outside of Australia.

How does your JBIC Entity contribute to evidence-based healthcare locally, regionally and globally??

In the beginning, our Centre was able to train two people to become trainers of trainers. Through them, we started a series of courses on the systematic?review methodology, which enabled us to train several nurses in the subject matter and work to conduct specific systematic reviews. In the past 10 years, we have trained more nurses in the implementation field, thanks to the JBI certified course. This course has been the Centre's main focus due to the trained professionals' acceptance and responsiveness to it, as well as the high publication rate of their implementation reports. We actively organise and participate in group meetings around Europe and are members of multiple other?JBI Methodological Working Groups.

After all these years, what is it about JBI and/or the JBIC that keeps you motivated to stay with and contribute to the JBIC??

Our primary aim is to strengthen the JBI Europe group, which is becoming increasingly consolidated and encourages highly effective networking in accordance with our values and context. We are also quite comfortable with international collaboration, but the size of the group means that our meetings do not let us get to know each other well, making collaboration tough. However, at the European level, we created a cohesive network of workers and friends.

Are there any lessons learned during your time with the JBIC that you would like to share??

To collaborate with different partners requires a greater effort to adapt to the culture of other contexts, different ways of working, and perhaps slower progress in some aspects, but it is much more enriching and the results contribute much more and provide value for more people. Many of our achievements would not have been possible without being part of an international Collaboration.

Tell us about the impact your JBIC Entity has had in your region.

The consolidation of the Centre suggests that all the regions of Spain and the healthcare professionals themselves use our Centre and what JBI provides as one of their primary options for evidence-based practice. The main benefit has been that the culture of evidence-based practice has spread throughout all of our healthcare institutions and, as a result, the population's health outcomes are improving on a constant basis.

What would be the one piece of advice you would give to someone thinking of joining the JBIC??

The experience in Spain has been very positive and, from all points of view, has benefited health workers, particularly nurses, as well as raised the safety of the nursing care we provide, which has had an important effect on population health outcomes. In short, it was definitely worth it!

Is there anything else you would like to share?

We acknowledge Alan Pearson's efforts as an innovator who conceptualised the JBI Collaboration, as a visionary and for his constant encouragement for all Centres to participate in the Collaboration.?Thank you!

JBI and the JBIC congratulate the hard-working team at?The Spanish Centre for Evidence Based Nursing and Healthcare: A JBI Centre of Excellence for their fantastic achievements over the past 20 years. We look forward to working with you in the years to come!