Celebrations in Finland

~ Remember to celebrate milestones as you prepare for the road ahead’ ~ Nelson Mandela

Celebrating those working in evidence-based healthcare is more important today than ever before. In this current COVID-19 crisis, what has been highlighted is that evidence-based practice saves lives, stop cross infection, and provides barriers to the further spread of the virus. The Finnish Centre for Evidence-Based Health Care: A JBI Centre of Excellence has been collaborating with JBI for ten years in evidence-based healthcare, providing research and creating teaching modules to disseminate evidence-based practice nationally and globally.

​We spoke to founder and current director Arja Holopainen, PhD, RN on her experiences with JBI over the past ten years.

Congratulations Arja on The Finnish Centre for Evidence-Based Health Care’s impressive milestone. As the founding Director what motivated you to join JBI and create a JBI Collaborating Entity in Finland?

Before my current position, I was a principal lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences. One of my duties was to develop the curriculum of master’s degree program (Master of Health Care, Development and Management of Health Care and Social Services). I had been interested in evidence-based healthcare (EBHC) for several years, and therefore, with my colleagues I planned an EBHC course for the curriculum.

Then I started in my current position as a research director at the Nursing Research Foundation in 2008, and I met Professor Alan Pearson and Dr Craig Lockwood when there was a symposium in Finland organised by Guidelines International Network (G-I-N) in 2008. The Nursing Research Foundation arranged a meeting with them, and after this meeting we decided to apply to become JBI’s first Finnish Collaborating Entity.

How did your interest in evidence-based practice start?

My interest started when I began my postgraduate studies after my master’s degree. At that time, I read a lot of articles concerning this topic and I noticed that I could utilise the publications as a teacher. In addition, I had a friend who asked me to write an article for a book which we published in 2003. In the article I described how we can utilise evidence and evidence-based practices in nursing education.

After 10 years, what still motivates you?

I dare to say that I and our team are enthusiastic, and we are constantly learning something new concerning evidence-based healthcare, information we can also use in our own practices. We have learnt a lot about different kind of systematic reviews. In addition, meetings with other JBI Collaborating Entities has been motivating.

What has your Centre achieved that you are most proud of?

The understanding and competence to make a systematic review has increased enormously in Finland. In addition, the understanding of evidence-based healthcare and what kind of expertise is needed at different phases of the process (the JBI model) has increased, especially in nursing.

What are the standout lessons you have learnt in your time with JBI?

It is important that we appreciate each other’s expertise and collaborate to improve evidence-based healthcare both nationally and internationally.

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

JBI provides an excellent network for promoting evidence-based healthcare.

Can you share one of your fondest memories of the JBIC?

One of the fondest memories is my first time at the Committee of Directors meeting in 2009 in Australia. It was a year before our centre was launched, and I realised then that we wanted to join and be an effective member within this network.

Can you share something about the Centre that other entities may not know?

The Finnish Centre for Evidence-Based Health Care consists of five partners, which are the Nursing Research Foundation; Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare; University of Eastern Finland(Department of Health and Social Management); Kuopio University Hospital; and South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences. The Nursing Research Foundation manages and coordinates the Centre. The Nursing Research Foundation is a national organisation, and its role is to promote evidence-based practices in Finland and to produce clinical guidelines for nursing.

Thank you so much Arja for taking the time to share your experiences with us–and again Happy 10th Anniversary!

We are excited about our collaboration and success with JBI and look forward to the future years to come.