Paper
Wednesday, 19 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Leadership and Management Strategies
Evidence-Based Nursing Among Nurse Executives in the United States of America
Darlene R. Sredl, PhD, College of Nursing, University of Missouri @ St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
Learning Objective #1: Identify evidence-based beliefs held by nurse executives in the United States of America.
Learning Objective #2: Identify barriers to the implementation of evidence-based nursing as cited by nurse executives in the United States of America.
The nursing milieu is rife with change.  One of the most significant changes that the profession of nursing has encountered in the last quarter century is Evidence-Based Nursing Practice (EBNP).   Nurse executives provide the structure for patient-care in creative and cost-effective ways.  EBNP allows this creativity of cost-effectiveness if supported by top-level nursing management.  There is a paucity of research, on nurse executives belief in, and  willingness to implement, the EBNP construct. 
 This abstract explores apperceptions, beliefs and efforts toward EBNP implementation among a randomized sample of nursing executives employed in upper management positions.  Quantitative questionnaires with two qualitative questions posed the research questions, “Do contemporary nurse executives believe in the fundamental concepts inherent within the EBNP process”, and “Is there a relationship/consociation between beliefs and attitudes toward EBNP implementation?” A third research question supporting the nested marketing determined if nurse executives were more likely to respond to a questionnaire appealing to professional status and identity or one  announcing the topic of the survey?
Data analysis including summary statistics and Profile Analysis via PAMS, and qualitative EBNP- related hermeneutic units of significance, reveal  a preponderance of evidence indicating nurse executives believe in the efficacy of EBNP but have not implemented it. The nested marketing survey reveals that nurse executives respond more readily to correspondence identifying position and title (19.4%) than to topic (12.2%).
Based on the quantitative data analysis of this study there appears to be a strong base of support for, and belief in, EBNP among contemporary nurse executives (94.8%); while concomitantly, a limited implementation of EBNP (47.4% claiming to have used evidence to change practice less than 3 times in the previous eight weeks) in America’s healthcare institutions. Data suggest a nursing milieu of uncertainty as to how to proceed towards implementation of EBNP.

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