The quantitative cross-sectional study, titled “Implementation of Evidence-Based Nursing Practice: Nurses’ Personal and Professional Factors”, aimed at exploring the relationship between nurses’ personal and professional factors on the one hand and evidence-based nursing practice on the other hand.
More specifically, the study explored the links between nurses’ personal variables (e.g., gender, age, marital status) and the implementation of evidence-based nursing, as well as nurses’ professional variables (e.g., workplace role, seniority, academic achievement, and availability of scientific material in work-contexts) and the implementation of evidence-based nursing. Standardized questionnaires were used to collect data from a convenience sample of 243 nursing professionals (Eizenberg, 2011).
The major justification for undertaking the study was premised on the fact that the nursing profession is increasingly shifting from the traditional intuition-based model to evidence-based nursing practice, hence the need for nurses to learn how to apply the best evidence in nursing decision-making by integrating nursing expertise with critical research findings (Eizenberg, 2011). A systematic literature review cited by this author had found a positive correlation “between practice according to research findings and attitudes towards research, and between educational level and reading professional journals” (p. 34). In this respect, it was plausible to explore ways through which nurses could be able to implement evidence-based nursing practice in care settings.
The findings of this particular study were both interesting and informative, with a considerable number of participants acknowledging that nursing professionals with degrees and access to a rich library with nursing and medical journals demonstrated more evidence-based nursing practice than their counterparts with no degrees or access to sources of essential nursing information. Additionally, opportunities for working with a computer and having the capacity to search the Internet for nursing information were positively correlated with evidence-based nursing practice.
Overall, the variables that emerged as either predicting or supporting evidence-based nursing practice in this particular study included: educational achievement, expertise in searching a variety of research sources, support of the health institution for searching and making use of professional literature, access to a computer and internet, knowledge sources premised on fellow nurses and system processes, knowledge sources premised on reading and internalizing professional literature, and knowledge sources premised on work experience, reflection and perception (Eizenberg, 2011).
How Article contributes to Evidence-Based Nursing Practice
The study brings in novel information which will go a long way in assisting nurses to implement evidence-based nursing practice in their work-settings. For example, the study results underline the need for nurses to pursue academic opportunities that will enable them make use of research-based information to make informed decisions in care settings. The management is also encouraged to avail such research-based information to nurses so that they can use it to not only sharpen their skills and expertise, but also develop the capacity to implement evidence-based nursing practice. Academic level is associated with interest to search research-based information for purposes of evidence-based nursing practice implementation.
Additionally, the study findings underline the need for nursing professionals to increasingly get exposed to professional journals, with the view to developing evidence-based nursing practice. In this respect, it is clear that nurses who read peer-reviewed journals regarding current practices in nursing often decamp from traditional intuition-based nursing paradigm to evidence-based nursing practice. Lastly, the study findings underline an important point, that management/organizational support is essential for evidence-based nursing practice to evolve and become internalized within the nursing profession.
Reference
Eizenberg, M.M. (2011). Implementation of evidence-based nursing practice: Nurses’ personal and professional factors? Journal of Advanced Nursing, 67(1), 33-42.