Cognitive maturity and readiness for evidence-based nursing practice

Individual factors are known to influence engagement in research utilization and evidence-based practice (EBP). Cognitive maturity is one factor that may enhance interest in and willingness to engage in clinical inquiry, research utilization, and EBP. Adult cognitive development theory explains why research training alone may not suffice to prepare nurses for EBP. Epistemic assumptions held by pre-reflective and quasireflective thinkers interfere with openness to uncertainty and ambiguity in practice and accurate understanding of the value of research for practice. Nurses may use good formal logic, but they also believe in authority, or revealed truth, as the criterion for knowledge and sometimes fail to perceive the need to evaluate evidence. Developmentally oriented educational efforts informed by the reflective judgment model have the potential to foster the cognitive development required in students of EBP. Further inquiry into the relationship between cognitive maturity and EBP will enhance these educational efforts.