Evidence-based practice process quality assessment: EPQA guidelines

Nurses are increasingly engaged in evidence-based practice (EBP) processes to answer significant questions and guide nursing practice. However, there are no criteria to evaluate the rigor and quality of EBP projects, making the decision about whether to implement a recommended practice change questionable.

The purpose of this study was to achieve consensus among nationally recognized EBP nurse experts on criteria that could be used to appraise the methodological quality of an EBP project as well as to serve as a guideline to plan for an EBP project.

A modified two-round Delphi method was used. Twenty-three nationally known EBP experts were invited by e-mail to participate in completing a web-based questionnaire.

Items converged after two rounds (response rate [52% (n=12/23) for Round 1 and 35% (n=8/23) for Round 2]) and resulted in the development of the EBP Process Quality Assessment (EPQA) guidelines that include 34 items.

The EPQA guidelines can be used to guide and evaluate the methodological quality of EBP projects. They can be used in practice settings to critically appraise an EBP project prior to translating recommendations into practice. Educators can use the EPQA guidelines as a rubric to evaluate student EBP projects. EPQA guidelines can be utilized in research to assess interventions and to build or improve EBP capacity.