At Denver Health, our new graduate nurse residency program is taking a fresh approach to teaching evidence-based practice (EBP). Instead of the traditional model, where new grads search the literature, design a practice change project, and present it with little chance of implementation, our residency coordinator, Kary Lundy, MSN, RN, NPD-BC, is helping nurses connect EBP directly to their day-to-day patient care.
The innovation is simple but powerful: clinical narratives. Denver Health began using this approach after learning about the practice from Mass General Brigham. With their permission, Kary introduced the idea here at Denver Health. As she explains, “We wanted to focus on two things: EBP use in the moment and the use of reflection to solidify learning, evolving, and critical thinking.”
Each new graduate writes a short story drawn from their own clinical experience. In the narrative, they describe a specific patient encounter and illustrate how their nursing actions reflected the best available evidence. The narrative does not end with personal reflection. It is anchored with citations from the research that support their care.
This method has two key benefits. First, it grounds evidence-based practice in reality. Rather than being an abstract academic exercise, EBP becomes part of the nurse’s developing professional identity. New grads see that evidence is not something “out there” in journals or projects, but a resource woven into the choices they make with patients every day. Second, the stories make learning stick. By framing practice in the form of a narrative, nurses connect evidence with meaning, memory, and professional pride.
Clinical narratives are also shareable, highlighting how new nurses are growing into evidence-based practitioners. In this way, Denver Health’s approach not only builds individual competence but strengthens our nursing culture of inquiry and evidence-based care.
