Methods: In academic settings, the competencies can be integrated into courses and across curricula to develop students that become high performing clinicians, prepared to actively engage in and lead EBP in real world work settings where EBP is an expectation. Academic EBP courses are a fairly new phenomenon. Until recently, most academic programs taught students the rigorous process of how to conduct research instead of how integrate research findings into practice (EBP). Based on the findings from this study, teaching EBP instead of research and leveling EBP content appropriately in academic courses may be having a positive impact on nurses’ EBP competence as demonstrated by the higher EBP competency reported by younger nurses and more highly educated nurses. This has critical implications for academics, who continue to wonder about what the correct content for undergraduate and graduate level nursing students is; research or EBP? This study reflects that teaching EBP actually supports the development of EBP competent nurses who provide higher quality, safer care and drive improved patient outcomes.
In clinical settings, the EBP competencies can be integrated into current infrastructures (onboarding, clinical ladders, job descriptions and performance appraisals, shared governance councils, and more) to achieve high performing systems that consistently implement and sustain evidence-based decision making and practice. Organizations that are building EBP competence, imbedding EBP in structures and processes, and creating a culture that supports EBP are having great success in achieving improved patient, clinician and organizational outcomes as well as significant returns on investments.
Results: A wide and diverse range of clinical and academic organizations have effectively integrated the EBP competencies in a variety of innovative ways and have demonstrated improvements in outcomes as a result. Exemplars and outcomes will be shared in this presentation. In addition, tools and templates for organizations to use to facilitate integration of the EBP competencies will be discussed.
Conclusion: The research-derived EBP competencies can be used to effectively to build attributes in individuals and across organizations, that lead to an evidence-based approach to decision making and care. An evidence-based approach to decision making and practice has been shown to improve quality, safety, patient care, outcomes, returns on investments, and cost savings. The experiences and lessons learned by innovative organizations who have been on the cutting edge of integrating the EBP competencies can inform other organizations as they work toward building and sustaining evidence-based nursing enterprises.