Implementing Evidence Based Practice (EBP)

Background and Significance

There is a great demand on nurses in clinical practice to implement evidence based practice (EBP) in their daily care. However, Implementing EBP is not easy and can be challenging for healthcare organizations (Koehn & Lehman, 2008; Majid et al., 2011). In Saudi Arabia (SA), healthcare organizations have been challenged to foster an environment that embraces EBP in clinical practice. Unfortunately, most of the efforts to support healthcare providers’ implementing EBP into their practice are focused on medical staff; little is done to support nursing staff and other healthcare professionals. The Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs (MNGHA) in Riyadh, SA, where this capstone project was implemented, is facing the

Nurses then were asked by the project leader to sign an informed consent after the project had been explained to them. Recruited nurses were then asked by the project leader to complete the questionnaire before starting the EBP educational program and immediately after completion of the program. Four weeks after completing the educational program the nurses were asked to complete the questionnaire again. The four-week follow-up questionnaire was distributed by the project leader to the participants through intradepartmental mail. Each survey had a detachable cover sheet with the participant’s name. The project leader assigned each participant an identification number; this identification number was used to match the pre- and post- questionnaires. Once the identification number was added to each survey by the project leader, the cover sheet with name was removed and destroyed. The key of participant names and identification numbers was stored by the project leader in a secured cabinet in a locked office and destroyed at the conclusion of the

All participants (100%) completed the pre and immediate post EBP educational program questionnaire. Of the 27 nurses who attend the EBP educational program, a total of 16 (59%) completed all three questionnaires at the required collection points.

The main age of the participants was 40 years (SD = 8.9; range 29–58) with an average experience level of 14.7 years (SD = 7.9; range 5–30). The majority (81.5%) had a bachelor as their highest degree earned. Participants were mostly female and non-Saudi. Additional demographics are provided in Table 1.

Baseline EBP Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice

Three separate two sample t-tests were conducted to compare baseline knowledge, attitude, and practice score for those with and without previous EBP education. Results revealed no differences between groups on any of these outcomes (ps ranged from .33-.96). The analysis of the EBPQ questionnaire found the highest subscale mean at baseline (before nurses attend the EBP educational program) was for attitude (M = 5.45) compared to knowledge (M = 4.47) and practice (M = 4.72).

EBP Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Comparisons over