Barriers to Teaching Evidence-Based Practice: Results of a Focused Group Discussion

Thursday, 16 July 2009: 1:45 PM

Joan Paternoster, PhD, RN
Henry P. Becton School of Nursing and Allied Health, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, NJ
Alayne Fitzpatrick, APRN, BC, EdD
Henry P. Becton School of Nursing and Allied Health, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, NY

Learning Objective 1: discuss globally identified barriers to teaching evidence-based practice.

Learning Objective 2: describe strategies that will facilitate the socialization of nursing students and nurses internationally to use evidence based practice

Purpose: Evidence based practice (EBP) is a core competency for all health professionals, yet not all nursing students are being taught and socialized into EBP. The purpose of this presentation is to describe the results of an international focused group discussion on teaching evidence-based practice.
Methods: To explore the use of EBP by nursing students and nurses in the clinical agencies a focused group discussion on “Teaching Evidence Based Nursing: Myth or Reality” was conducted at an international research conference.  The history of EBP, models of research utilization, research utilization process, and definitions of EBP were presented.  Three questions were used for discussion, “Are we teaching and socializing nursing students into evidence based practice?” “What methods are we using to accomplish the socialization of nursing students into evidence based practice?” and “How can we improve our teaching and socialization of nursing students into evidence based practice?”  
Many nurses and nurse educators from around the world attended this presentation.
Results: The participants stated that faculty taught research rather than EBP in the classroom because they thought research and EBP was the same thing.  They did not feel that socialization into EBP was happening in the practice area.  They would like to be role models for EBP and wished that practitioners in the agencies were also role models for EBP.  The participants stated that practitioners are not using EBP, because of increased work overload, lack of administrative support, education-practice split, not enough time to do EBP, and not enough computers in the agencies.
Conclusion: Even though these challenges to EBP are present, we need to socialize nursing students into EBP. Strategies to overcome these barriers will be discussed.