Background: Systematic implementation of evidence-based practice is essential to effectively improving quality and consistency of care as well as patient outcomes. However, previous studies have shown that nurses do not consistently use evidence in practice. Major factors hindering uptake are lack of nurses’ individual readiness as well as organizational readiness for evidence-based practice. Although nurses’ competencies for evidence-based practice have been broadly studied in countries leading the global evidence-based practice movement, less is known about nurses’ individual readiness for evidence-based practice in the non-English-speaking world. The goal of this study was to provide a baseline measurement of the state of Finnish RNs’ readiness for evidence-based practice at university hospitals, a benchmark for international comparisons of nurses’ evidence-based practice readiness, and a guide to develop and test strategies that promote nurses’ evidence-based practice competencies in daily healthcare delivery.
Design: A cross-sectional descriptive survey design.
Methods: The research study was conducted at the end of 2014 in every university hospital in Finland with a convenience sample (n=943) of practicing Registered Nurses. The electronic survey data were collected using the Stevens’ Evidence-Based Practice Readiness Inventory (ERI), which was translated into Finnish according to international standardized guidelines for translation of research instruments. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.
Results: Registered Nurses reported low to moderate levels of self-efficacy and perceived evidence-based practice knowledge, as well as low levels of actual evidence-based practice knowledge. A statistically significant, direct correlation was found between Registered Nurses’ self-efficacy in implementing evidence-based practice and their actual evidence-based practice knowledge level. Several significant differences were found between Registered Nurses’ socio-demographic variables and their self-efficacy in employing evidence-based practice, actual evidence-based practice knowledge, and perceived evidence-based practice knowledge.
Conclusions: Registered Nurses at university hospitals in Finland are not ready for evidence-based practice. Although the majority of Registered Nurses were familiar with the concept of evidence-based practice, they lacked both the actual and perceived evidence-based practice knowledge as well as self-efficacy in employing evidence-based practice required for successfully integrating best evidence into daily clinical care delivery.