Teaching strategies to support evidence-based practice

Evidence-based practice is an expected core competency of all health care clinicians regardless of discipline. Use of evidence-based practice means integrating the best research with clinical expertise and patient values to achieve optimal health outcomes. Evidence-based practice requires nurses to access and appraise evidence rapidly before integrating it into clinical practice. Role modeling and integrating the skills necessary to develop evidence-based practice into clinical and nonclinical courses is an important part in developing positive attitudes toward evidence-based practice, an essential first step to using evidence to guide practice decisions. The step-by-step approach to evidence-based practice proposed by Melnyk and colleagues provides an excellent organizing framework for teaching strategies specifically designed to facilitate nurses' knowledge and skill development in evidence-based practice.