Readiness for evidence-based practice: information literacy needs of nurses in the United States

In this paper U.S. nurses' readiness to provide Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) as measured by their information literacy knowledge and skills is described. The Institute of Medicine directed health care providers to use EBP as a means to improve patient safety, efficiency and effectiveness of health care services. Information literacy has been identified as a nursing informatics competency for the basic nurse. As such, information literacy is an essential component in the application of EBP. The importance of developing information literacy skills is enhancement of the nurse's ability to use current best available research literature in the conduct of EBP with subsequent improvement in nursing sensitive patient outcomes. This study describes the level of nurses' information literacy knowledge and gaps in their skills for identifying, accessing, retrieving, evaluating and utilizing research evidence to provide best care for patients. The value of this study is to increase awareness among nurse administrators, educators, and clinicians of the need for information literacy education to enable evidence-based nursing practice and to guide development of supportive curricula and professional continuing education.