The Evidence Available to Teach Evidence-Based Nursing Practice by Nurse Educators

Abstract

Background and Aim: The benefits that ensue from evidence-based nursing practice (EBNP) in health care settings have been globally communicated to nurses. However, the current clinical activities surrounding EBNP demand involvement of nursing institutions in creating an EBNP thrust. The purpose of this research project was to explore, synthesize, and describe the evidence available to teach EBNP to undergraduate student nurses, so the students can continue to integrate EBNP in clinical settings upon becoming professional nurses. Methods and Design: This thesis was guided by the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) guidelines for writing systematic reviews. While using these guidelines, the focus was on qualitatively synthesizing all the available evidence. All the retrieved articles were subjected to the inclusion and exclusion criteria and finally appraised for quality using the JBI tools for qualitative assessment. Results and Conclusion: Fifteen articles were included in the systematic review. The results indicate that several educational strategies exist to teach EBNP effectively. These strategies have been designed based on time and duration of teaching EBNP, nursing practice content to be taught, context of teaching and learning, and EBNP pre-requisites. Well-designed evidence-informed educational strategies have a positive impact on students’ EBNP knowledge and a big potential for promoting EBNP implementation in clinical practice. The effective EBNP educational strategies should be student engaging, bridging classroom and clinical settings, built on the context of EBNP steps (Melnyk & Newhouse, 2014), and be time friendly. A significant benefit is realized when nurse educators use these strategies in combination. However, cost effective strategies promoting critical and evidence-based thinking are needed for teaching EBNP by nurse educators, especially in developing African countries where health care fiscal and human resources are scarce.