How “Literature Review to Poster” Supported Fall Prevention at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center

April 28, 2026

Participants in the inaugural “Literature Review to Poster” course offered in partnership between Dartmouth's Medical & Health Sciences Libraries and Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center

Transforming Intellectual Curiosity Into Research and Impact

Hospitals nationwide share a similar problem: falls. Between 700,000 and 1 million patients fall while in the hospital, resulting in up to 250,000 injuries and up to 11,000 deaths.¹ The increased financial toll on individuals and providers is tremendous. While hospitals implement guidelines, procedures, and policies to prevent falls, on-duty practitioners continue to face the everyday realities of human interaction and behavior in environments that may be new, confusing, or disorienting for patients and visitors. While institutions seek the proverbial “silver bullet” to solve this ongoing issue, localized approaches grounded in research are what practitioners find make the most difference.

Finding Solutions & Answers Through Research

At Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH, a group of Clinical Nurse Leaders identified an issue they wanted to solve. They were concerned about inpatient falls with injury. The group formed a “Falls Committee,” bringing together expertise from across the medical center.

Members of the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center Falls Committee

One member of that group, Trista Farrington, saw how participating in a course offered by Dartmouth’s Medical & Health Sciences Libraries and Dartmouth Health’s Office of Advanced Practice Providers could help formalize the Falls Committee’s idea as research. Farrington explains how CNLs notice “issues arising from the patient level, for nurses, and at a system level. We work to find solutions by looking at what’s happening in the system with staff or patients and how we can solve those issues using evidence-based practice data to drive sustainability.”

I’m a lifelong learner, and part of my job is staying current with what’s happening with evolving healthcare and the related technologies. “Literature Review to Poster” aligned to help the Falls Committee and me formalize our research for fall prevention.

Trista Farrington, Clinical Nurse Leader

The course, “Literature Review to Poster,” co-designed and co-facilitated by Dr Bridget Linehan, Director of APP Clinical Education and Research, and Elaina Vitale, Medical Libraries Clinical Engagement Lead, offers Advanced Practice Providers and Registered Nurses “who are incredibly motivated to do good work” the opportunity to apply their intellectual curiosity to research projects.

From left, Elaina Vitale and Dr Bridget Linehan, co-designers and facilitators of the course “Literature Review to Poster”

In the 10-week program, Farrington and fellow participants were encouraged and shown how to transform their individual or group ideas into scholarship. Through scaffolded learning, they defined their research questions; learned contemporary practices in conducting and writing a literature review, including using the latest library resources to augment the process; and were taught best practices for designing a research poster for final presentation. This structure was invaluable to Farrington: “As a nurse, I focus on nursing and patient issues; everything we do, we want it to be grounded in best practice and evidence.”

Advanced Practice Providers and Registered Nurses have much more academic knowledge than they’re given the time or space to dwell on. This supportive and engaging course makes time and space for them to access that intellect and focus on solutions and deeper answers.

Dr Bridget Linehan, Director of APP Clinical Education and Research

The Balance of Specialized Expertise

Dr Linehan and Vitale’s desire to work together was fortuitous after they met in 2025. Both recognized a long-standing need to formalize and support research project momentum at DH. Vitale, for instance, had observed that after helping individuals with their literature searches, there wasn’t an obvious pathway to further share and apply their findings. Dr Linehan was witnessing how APPs and RNs could see solutions to problems but needed the academic foundation to translate their ideas into rigorous scholarship. Collaborating on this course addresses those needs while accounting for what often hinders APPs and RNs from pursuing their research ideas: workplace duties and time.

Literature is the bedrock of scientific discovery and the exploration process. It supports passionate medical and health professionals to understand what else is out there and tap into that to produce change.

Elaina Vitale, Medical Libraries Clinical Engagement Lead

In working together, Dr Linehan and Vitale shared how they appreciate what each uniquely offers in their skill sets and perspectives in their partnership. “My ability to collaborate with Elaina is invaluable. What Elaina offers is an enormous gift. We would be far worse off without her contribution,” says Dr Linehan. “It’s way more fun and gives participants so much more when we work together: different perspectives, encouragement, expanded skills, and expanded knowledge.” Even “as someone who does research and loves my topics deeply,” adds Dr Linehan, “I don’t know how to do what a librarian does; it’s super technical, and the landscape is ever-changing. It’s a relief to me to embrace the idea of not having to be good at what a librarian can do.” For Vitale, “It feels gratifying to offer resources that will help someone with a problem or question efficiently and effectively.” And it’s also about saving researchers time by giving them information that will help answer their “burning questions.”

Dr Linehan and Vitale acknowledge that these collaborations are possible when there are people with the tools and time to shape the spark of an idea into such a unique learning experience.

Knowledge Sharing & Its Impact

While each aspect of the program is an important step in the participants’ research process, it’s the final poster presentation sessions that are critical to the entire project. The posters illustrate and outline the research idea in a professional context, in a medium for everyone to understand.

Dr Linehan recalls how at a recent poster session, “One participant invited a co-worker who was unsure about their idea for change, but after seeing the poster, that co-worker was convinced to make a change based on the thorough, systematic presentation of current literature.” Others submitted their posters to conferences or posted them on their workplace walls to continue the conversation and amplify their research outputs.

four members of the inaugural "Literature Review to Poster" course in front of a final research project

Image from poster session from the inaugural “Literature Review to Poster” course

For Farrington, her poster had a significant impact. In her feedback on the course, she wrote, “Information was presented to the DH Falls Committee for review and integration into practice. The most recent data indicates that our fall rate decreased by 60% in five months.” She and the Falls Committee are presenting the research findings to higher-level administrators in hopes of adopting their findings as practice in the DH system. The group’s goal is to shift to what’s called a “predictive model,” which is a whole-person approach to assess and determine an individual’s fall risk.

a group of Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center affiliates gather for the poster session

“Literature Review to Poster” knowledge-sharing poster session at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center

Farrington goes on to explain how the program “equated to some real outcomes,” and she hopes she and fellow participants will continue to apply what they learned when and where they can. Farrington’s poster was also accepted at a local conference, and she is waiting to hear the results from its submission to other medical conferences. Proud of what the Falls Committee was able to achieve together, she adds, “Now that the work is out there, the sharing of learning and amplifying its outcomes can continue to grow.”

Addressing a Critical Need

Dr Linehan and Vitale’s inaugural course had 37 sign-ups, demonstrating, as Dr Linehan states, “a need and hunger” for this type of supportive program. She adds that other Dartmouth Health sites are now interested in offering it, including in Manchester, NH. As such, Dr Linehan and Vitale are hoping to find more effective ways to engage colleagues in the program beyond the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center campus. What makes it such a success is how the course ultimately provides what Dr Linehan describes as a “non-intimidating” and “welcoming” experience and space for practitioners to tap into their expertise and move from idea to formal research.

What’s motivating and exciting is how we’re changing the perception that the library just serves students. It’s so much more than that. It’s the place to spark research ideas for everyone across all areas.

Dr Bridget Linehan, Director of APP Clinical Education and Research

Farrington had such a positive experience she decided to take the course again. Whenever appropriate, she tells her colleagues about the course and about how essential the Libraries are to the DH research community. She explains how in “nursing school you learn that evidence-based practice is required, but we need the library to support that process and our efforts.” It's “huge” to have a library co-located at the DH campus for anyone wanting to use research to underscore and complement their work. Farrington also adds, “Elaina is a great listener and focuses on each individual and gives you the time and attention you need and connects you to everything that you need,” including the abundance of library resources available to support “evidence-based practice.”

Vitale has heard community members say, “The library isn’t a place for me,” but through this collaboration she and Dr Linehan demonstrate that the library is, in fact, for them. “The course exposes them to journals, library staff, technology, and more that illustrate how they are an integral part of the research enterprise.”

Throughout the interview with Dr Linehan and Vitale, it was clear how passionate they are about this collaboration. What was clearer, though, was how humbled they were by the incredible change and impact that they witnessed as a result of giving APPs and RNs the time and space to express and apply their knowledge as research. As Farrington noted in her interview, “Elaina and Bridget are passionate about what they do and love what they do.”

Dr Linehan and Vitale are currently offering this course to a new cohort of APPs and RNs. This group’s final research posters will be on view at a Dartmouth Health community gathering on June 25th across two sessions.