Emergency Nursing and Evidence-Based Practices: A Qualitative Study

Emergency departments are usually places with high activity where emergency practitioners encounter a wide range of unexpected situations. Like other health care professionals, emergency service workers are expected to follow current research results and ensure that their practices are evidence-based.

The aim of this research is to describe emergency nurses' views on evidence-based practices and the factors supporting and preventing their use of these practices.

A qualitative research design with a descriptive phenomenological approach was used. The research was completed with the participation of 20 emergency nurses from different cities in the Emergency Nursing certification training held at a Training and Research Hospital between June and December 2022. Data were collected in three sessions through focus group discussions of 6-7 people using a semi-structured interview form. Data were analysed with Braun and Clarke's six-stage thematic analysis of the MAXQDA program. The Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) checklist was followed.

Three themes were identified from the analysis of the interview documents: in the line of science, barriers to evidence-based practice, expectations for the development of evidence-based practice.

There are many factors that affect and prevent emergency nurses from using evidence-based practices. It is thought that the barriers expressed by nurses can be eliminated with necessary arrangements such as eliminating the disconnection between academia and clinics, in-service training, lightening the workload, and by nursing leaders and managers rewarding the success of researcher nurses.

The results obtained from this study serve as a guide to encourage emergency nurses to transfer evidence-based practices to the clinic.