Background

Clinicians are often familiar with quality improvement (QI) and evidence-based practice (EBP) processes, which provides guidance into what evidence should be implemented; however, these processes do not address how to successfully implement evidence.

Objective

Clinicians would benefit from a deeper understanding of implementation science, along with practical tools for how to use these principles in QI and EBP projects.

Methods

We provide a brief background of the principles of implementation science, an overview of current implementation science models and a toolkit to facilitate choosing and using common implementation science strategies. In addition, the toolkit provides guidance for measuring the success of an implementation science project and a case study showing how implementation science strategies can be used successfully in clinical practice.

Conclusions

Using an implementation science toolkit for designing, conducting, and evaluating a QI or EBP project improves the quality and generalizability of results.