Implementation of evidence-based nursing practice: nurses' personal and professional factors?

This paper is a report of a study conducted to explore the relationship between nurses' personal and professional factors and evidence-based nursing practice.

Like most health-related professions, nursing is shifting from the traditional intuition-based paradigm to evidence-based nursing practice.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2007 with a convenience sample of 243 nurses from northern Israel, who worked in hospitals or in the community. Associations between background variables and evidence-based nursing practice were examined. For the purpose of finding factors that predicted behaviour, a logistic regression analysis was conducted.

The self-reported professional behaviour of nurses with a degree was more evidence-based than that of those without a degree. Moreover, evidence-based nursing practice was more likely where there was access to a rich library with nursing and medical journals, and opportunities for working with a computer and for searching the Internet in the workplace. The variables emerging as predicting evidence-based nursing practice were: education, skills in locating various research sources, support of the organization for searching and reading professional literature, knowledge sources based on colleagues and system procedures (inhibiting variable), knowledge sources based on reading professional literature, and knowledge sources based on experience or intuition.

The findings point to the need for research-based information, exposure to professional journals and, in particular, organizational support for evidence-based nursing practice.