Perception of Spanish primary healthcare nurses about evidence-based clinical practice: a qualitative study

Although evidence-based clinical practice constitutes a priority for healthcare services in many countries within the last few years, there is a general lack of implementation of evidence-based clinical practice in nursing care, especially in primary health care. Few qualitative studies concerning the influencing factors on evidence-based clinical practice for community nurses have been carried out.

This study examined the perception of nurses in Spanish primary health care with regard to the knowledge, advantages and barriers within the application process with evidence-based clinical practice.

We used a descriptive qualitative study with focus groups to collect data. Forty-six primary care nurses took part in this study and they were distributed into five focus groups.

Five main topics arose from the results achieved: knowledge and development of evidence-based clinical practice, evidence searching, evidence dissemination, advantages of use of evidence-based clinical practice, and barriers for its application and implementation. Participants had a positive attitude towards evidence-based practice, although they used this infrequently because of lack of competence and organizational support for its application.

Our participants are increasingly determined to take into account evidence within the decision-making processes in their usual clinical practice. We consider it advisable to develop specialized training strategies as well as provide necessary resources for the implementation of evidence-based clinical practice duly adapted to the field of primary health care.

This study highlights the existing gap in translating knowledge to practice and its potential implications in the effectiveness of nursing interventions and decision making in primary health care, and thus its implications for education policy.