Advancing Implementation Practice: Supplemental Tools to Aid in Selection of Implementation Strategies and Outcomes for Healthcare Practitioners

Abstract The field of implementation science has grown exponentially within healthcare and human service delivery settings. Scientists in the field have made tremendous strides in generating new knowledge aimed at increasing uptake of evidence into practice settings, including development of numerous theories, models, and frameworks to guide the process of implementation, strategies to operationalize optimal methods of implementing an evidence-based practice change, and designated outcomes to evaluate the progress of a change initiative. Despite these gains in scientific discovery surrounding implementation, routine use and application of this knowledge among healthcare practitioners seeking to implement a practice change in real world settings remains fragmented, risking development of a “secondary gap” between what we know from the science of implementation and what is actually done by frontline teams when implementing evidence-based practice changes. To address this gap, we developed two supplemental tools to bridge the language between implementation science and implementation practice: the Implementation Strategies Supplemental Tool (ISST), and the Implementation Outcomes Supplemental Tool (IOST). The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and intended use of these tools for healthcare practitioners seeking to use a science-informed approach when implementing an evidence-based practice change. We include a case example of how healthcare practitioners may apply these tools to improve implementation of evidence-based practices in real-world settings.