Integrating evidence-based practice in nurse practitioner education

This column normally focuses on a specific clinical practice guideline (CPG). This month's column deviates from that practice to demonstrate how evidence-based practice (EBP) was integrated into the nurse practitioner (NP) curriculum at the University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing. Processes of EBP were linked to student clinical assignments across core NP clinical courses, culminating in a student-published CPG. When students research and analyze available scientific evidence for a CPG, they learn to critically evaluate and logically organize knowledge for use in clinical practice, and those critical-thinking skills can lead to improved clinical reasoning and decision making.