Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 7, 2026

Using Learning Outcome Measures to assess Doctoral Nursing Education
Published on: June 21, 2010
"Let's see if that's true": Nurses' processes and dispositions in evaluating evidence for practice
Elizabeth Betsy S Hopkins1, Brandon Patterson2, Anne R Diekema3
1Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT.
Background:
Evaluation of information is central to successful evidence-based practice, especially today when nurses are exposed to many information sources.
Purpose:
Here, we report on the processes and dispositions nurses display when evaluating information, along with additional observations relevant to evidence-based practice.
Methods:
Our data comes from the qualitative portion of a mixed-methods study. We conducted 18 semi-structured interviews with nurses from a variety of specialties.
Discussion:
The processes nurses used included fact-checking, examining criteria, looking for cited references, and group decision-making. Nurses demonstrated dispositions of trusting or distrusting source provenance, organizations, and credentials or role.
Conclusion:
While nurses are showing some positive evaluation behaviors, other findings are quite concerning. In particular, blindly trusting or mistrusting sources and relying only on existing knowledge to assess the information could lead nurses to incorrect evaluation judgments and prevent new research findings from being integrated into practice.
Related Concept Videos
Role of Communication in the Nursing Process III: Evaluation and Documentation
Nursing Evaluation
Fundamentals of Nursing Process I
Patient-centered Care
Critical Thinking I
The Scientific Method in Nursing Process
When using research findings to change practice, one must understand the process used to guide a study. The scientific method is a systematic, step-by-step process that supports the data's validity, reliability, and generalizability. As a result, findings can be...
