Graduate nursing students' evaluation of EBP courses: a cross-sectional study

There is a lack of appropriate tools for assessing the effectiveness of teaching evidence-based practice in nursing.

The objective of the study was to develop the instrument evaluating the students' perception of the effectiveness of EBP courses and to verify its psychometric properties.

A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used to verify psychometric properties of the questionnaire measuring the students' perception of the effectiveness of EBP courses.

The psychometric properties were evaluated in a group of 129 graduate nursing students who completed EBP courses.

The instrument for measuring the students' perception of the effectiveness of EBP courses was inspired by Kirkpatrick's evaluation model, which advocates evaluating interventions at four levels - reaction (satisfaction), learning, behavior change (transfer) and results (benefits). A web-based survey was used for data collection. Data was collected from the middle of January 2013 through the end of March 2013.

A thirteen item instrument was developed for measuring the students' perception of the effectiveness of EBP courses. The internal consistency of the scale, based on standardized Cronbach's alpha, was .93. The results of factor analysis identified three factors of the instrument. The highest rated items on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) were 'implementation of EBP can improve clinical care' (mean 6.16), 'EBP instructors had a thorough knowledge of EBP' (6.13), 'EBP instructors were enthusiastic about teaching EBP' (5.65), and 'I can use my EBP knowledge and skills in my practice' (5.58).

The results of testing of the psychometric properties of the questionnaire showed at least satisfactory validity and reliability. The majority of students perceived EBP courses as effective. The instrument may be used to assess the students' perception of the effectiveness of EBP courses.