Methods: The scales were administered to 394 nurses from 5 states. The EBP Beliefs Scale is a 16 item instrument on which nurses are asked to respond to each item (e.g., ‘I believe that EBP results in the best care for patients,” “I am clear about the steps of EBP”) on a 5-point Likert scale that ranges from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The EBP Implementation Scale is an 18 item instrument on which nurses are asked to respond to each item (e.g., “used evidence to change my clinical practice, critically appraised evidence from a research study”) on a 5-point Likert scale by indicating how often in the past 8 weeks that they performed the item from a range of 0 meaning “0 times” to 4, meaning “>8 times.” 

Findings: Content and face validity for both scales was confirmed by 8 experts in EBP and 15 staff nurses. Construct validity was supported through factor analysis. Reliability coefficients for each of the scales exceeded 0.85. A significant correlation was found between EBP beliefs and implementation.

Conclusions and Practice Implications: Both the EBP Beliefs and EBP Implementation Scales are valid and reliable instruments that can be used in clinical practice settings. Beliefs in EBP appear to be a critical factor in implementation, therefore, interventions to strengthen nurses’ EBP beliefs (e.g., knowledge and skills building workshops) are likely to increase its implementation.