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Key considerations for selecting instruments when evaluating healthcare professionals' evidence-based practice
Hannele Saunders1,2, Katri Vehviläinen-Julkunen3
1Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Nursing Science, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland.
Journal of Advanced Nursing
|July 19, 2018
Summary
Accurate measurement of healthcare professionals' evidence-based practice (EBP) competencies is crucial. Objective performance-based tools are available in medicine and physical therapy, but nursing requires urgent development and validation of such instruments.
Area of Science:
- Healthcare Professional Development
- Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) Evaluation
- Nursing Education and Practice
Background:
- Evaluating healthcare professionals' evidence-based practice (EBP) competencies is essential for quality patient care.
- Current nursing competency evaluations predominantly rely on self-assessments, which have demonstrated poor accuracy for measurable constructs like EBP knowledge and skills.
- Accurate EBP competency measurement is vital for systematic implementation in healthcare organizations, ultimately improving patient outcomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To discuss key considerations for selecting instruments and tools to evaluate healthcare professionals' evidence-based practice (EBP) competencies.
- To review the availability and applicability of validated instruments for assessing performance-based EBP competencies across healthcare professions.
Main Methods:
- A discussion paper synthesizing information from international peer-reviewed journals.
- Literature search focused on validated instruments for assessing performance-based EBP competencies in healthcare professionals.
- Publication period: January 2000 to November 2017.
Main Results:
- Validated, performance-based instruments for evaluating EBP competencies are available in medicine.
- Some of these instruments have been adapted for physical and occupational therapy.
- Modification and validation efforts for nursing are in their nascent stages.
Conclusions:
- Nursing urgently needs to develop and validate objective, performance-based instruments to measure EBP competencies accurately.
- Continued reliance on self-assessments in nursing hinders the direct measurement of EBP skills and knowledge.
- Future research should focus on developing new objective instruments and adapting existing ones from medicine for nursing practice.
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