Using the TRANSLATE framework to support practice transformation: Perspectives of a practice facilitator

Abstract

Background: In 2008, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) awarded Statewide Health Improvement Partnership (SHIP) funding to community health boards (CHBs), directing them to partner with schools, worksites, communities, and health care to address obesity and tobacco use/exposure. Methods: Each CHB selected one of two health care strategies: implement obesity and healthy lifestyle guidelines or connect clinics to community resources. The CHB in rural west-central Minnesota chose to champion clinical guideline implementation, assigning one of its own county-level public health nurses the role of practice facilitator (PF). This decision set the stage for a novel community partnership between public health, clinical guideline developers, and local providers of relevant clinical services. Lessons Learned: This community perspective describes how the PF organized support for clinical guideline implementation using the TRANSLATE framework, and explores the capacity of the TRANSLATE framework to accommodate particularities of clinical partners that is necessary in working to transform evidence-based knowledge into real-world practice.