Evidence-Based Practice And Its Associated Factors Among Highly Educated Clinical Nurses In Jinan City

Objectives The present study explored the current situation of evidence-based nursing practice and its associated factors among highly educated clinical nurses, in order to provide scientific evidence for effectively using the guiding function of graduate students to improve implementation of evidence-based practice in clinical practice.Methods1. Pilot survey:20nurses working in Qilu Hospital of Shandong University was investigated with questionnaires using purposive sampling, the data were used to verify the content validity of the translated scales.2. Formal survey:(1) Quantitative survey:Purposively selected all141clinical nurses with or preparing for a master’s degree from4teaching hospitals affiliated to Shandong University. To investigated the current situation of evidence-based nursing practice and its associated factors by using Evidence-Based Practice Belief Scale, Evidence-Based Practice Implementation Scale, Barriers of Research Utilization Scale and Facilitators of Research Utilization Scale. SPSS17.0was used to analyze the data. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was applied for internal consistency reliability. Mean, Standard Deviation, Frequency and Fercentage were used to described the current situation of evidence-based nursing beliefs, behaviors, barriers and facilitators.(2) Qualitative interview:According to grounded theory approach of qualitative research, Purposively selected nursing leaders(such as the chief of the nursing department and the managers of the ward)and senior clinical nurses to conduct the unstructured interview. We got the interview data from one chief nurse, two ward nurse managers and4senior clinical nurses. The data were analyzed to understand the factors which might impact highly educated nurses taking the leading(model) role on in evidence based nursing. NVivo10.0software was used to store, encode and analyze the interview data and to extract crucial concepts.Results1.Pilot survey: According to opinions on expression and meaning of the language of the translated Taiwan questionnaire from20nurses, we re-word some items to make it clearly understand by the participants.2. Formal survey:(1) Quantitative survey:The internal consistency reliability of Evidence-Based Practice Belief Scale, Evidence-Based Practice Implementation Scale, Barriers of Research Utilization Scale and Facilitators of Research Utilization Scale were0.788,0.943,0.920,0.820respectively. For the Barriers of Research Utilization Scale, the internal consistency reliability of its4dimensions were0.808,0.793,0.776,0.707, respectively, all of which were acceptable.The average scores of Evidence-Based Practice Belief Scale, Evidence-Based Practice Implementation Scale, Barriers of Research Utilization Scale and Facilitators of Research Utilization Scale were3.70±0.310,0.63±0.557,2.87±0.448,3.35±0.409, respectively. For Barriers of Research Utilization, the average scores of each dimensions were2.78±0.537,2.87±0.545,2.70±0.577,3.08±0.409, respectively. (2) Qualitative analysis:Five core themes were extracted. To promote the leading role of highly educated nurses in evidence-based practice, the following aspects should be emphasized:1) identify the high educated nurses’ role on evidence-based practice;2) provide more funding for nurses to conduct nursing research;3) enhance the cooperations with academic institutions or universities to offer highly educated nurses more opportunities to participate in researches and projects by leading other nurses;4) managers should empower properly to high educated clinical nurses on evidence-based practice;5) gradually expressly stated evidence-based practice and document it into the nursing procedure.ConclusionThe level of evidence-based practice belief among highly educated clinical nurses were generally high. However, the level of implementing evidence-based practice was quite low, which indicated that highly educated clinical nurses did not take leading role on evidence-based practice yet. It was suggested that to improve this condition, the following aspects should be emphasized:1) identify the highly educated clinical nurses’ leading role on evidence-based practice by training and mobilization;2) discuss with leaders of the hospital, struggle for more nursing research funding;3) enhance the cooperations with academic universities to offer highly educated clinical nurses more opportunities to participate in researches and projects by leading other nurses;4) persuade managers empowering properly by EBP training;5) gradually expressly stated evidence-based practice and documented it into the nursing procedure, formulate implementing standards, assessment, rewards and punishments measures.