Promising Practices
The Promising Practices database informs professionals and community members about documented approaches to improving community health and quality of life.
The ultimate goal is to support the systematic adoption, implementation, and evaluation of successful programs, practices, and policy changes. The database provides carefully reviewed, documented, and ranked practices that range from good ideas to evidence-based practices.
Learn more about the ranking methodology.
Filed under Local, Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Adults, Women, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
The objectives are to increase knowledge of SIDS risk reduction strategies, including sleep position, use of cribs (instead of adult beds and couches), and elimination of bedding.
Childcare provider behavior related to safe sleep practices can be improved from short, in-person targeted educational sessions.
Filed under Local, Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Children, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
The objectives are to increase knowledge of SIDS risk reduction strategies, including sleep position and roomsharing without bedsharing.
A 15-minute educational session with small groups of parents is effective in informing parents about the importance of safe sleep position and in changing parent behavior for at least the first 6 months of the infant's life.
Filed under Local, Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children, Teens, Families, Urban
The goal is to increase awareness in faith-based communities regarding preventative care for children and services available at Children's National Medical Center for patients and families.
The Parish Nursing Program will train eight nurses to become Faith Community Nurses in Summer 2013.
Filed under Local, Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Teens, Adults
The goal of this project is to achieve high rates of identification of new HIV infection and to decrease the spread of HIV among youth in metropolitan DC, which is severely affected by the epidemic.
Filed under Local, Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children, Teens, Families
The objective of the Special Edition Sickle Cell Newscast is to increase the public's awareness of Sickle Cell Disease and to train lifelong advocates for SCD among the teen population.
Note: This practice has been Archived.
Filed under Local, Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children, Teens
The Children's National Food Allergy School Nurse Education Program seeks to increase knowledge about childhood food allergy through a standardized educational curriculum.
The Children's National Food Allergy School Nurse Education Program significantly increased the percent of nurses in the District of Columbia who believed students were teased or bullied due to food allergy and felt food allergy was a serious health concern for which schools should have guidelines.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Adults
The goal of this program is to improve colorectal cancer screening rates among older adults.
Participants in the intervention group had significantly higher colorectal cancer screening attendance, as well as having more positive attitudes about screening and placing a higher priority on screening.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Urban
Insite’s mission is to provide a safe environment for people to inject drugs and thus reduce injecting activity in public while linking drug users to health care services such as primary care, addiction counseling and treatment.
Opening supervised injected facilities have resulted in significant reductions in public injection drug use related issues and increase in referrals to social services and detoxification programs in Vancouver.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
The program aimed to increase the rate of cervical cancer screening in Chinese women living in North America in response to research findings of significantly lower cervical cancer screening rates in Chinese women.
This intervention program found that women who received an intervention had cervical cancer screenings at a higher rate than those who did not receive any intervention. This shows that culturally and linguistically appropriate interventions might help improve Pap testing rates among Chinese women.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Public Safety, Adults
The goal of this program is to raise awareness of the proper position of car head rests, and to encourage drivers to adjust their head rest to the appropriate height.