Nurses' evidence-based practice competence and hospital practice environment after specific training under the Best Practice Spotlight Organization® Programme. A cross sectional study

Abstract

Background: Barriers to implementing training strategies for the improvement of evidence-based practice competence of nurses in hospital practice environments still persist.

Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of a specific training within the framework of the Best Practice Spotlight Organization® programme, on nurses' evidence-based practice competence and the practice environment in two hospitals.

Design: This is a observational cross-sectional study assessing evidence-based practice competence and perceptions of Practice Environments.

Participants: The study sample were 204 nurses working at medical and surgical inpatient units at two hospitals involved in the Best Practice Spotlight Organization® programme.

Methods: The study was conducted from February 2020 to May 2020. Three questionnaires were used to collect data: a sociodemographic/occupational questionnaire, a questionnaire exploring evidence-based practice skills, and a questionnaire exploring nurses' perceptions of their hospital practice environments.

Results: A total of 204 nurses participated. They were classified into two groups: those who had received specific training within the framework of the programme, called trained-champions (n = 66), and those who had not yet received training, control group (n = 138). The trained-champions exhibited better evidence-based practice competence values than the control group in all dimensions (p < 0.001), with a higher difference in means in the "Utilisation" dimension (-0.80; CI:-0.99,-0.60) and the "Knowledge" dimension (-0.63; CI:-0.88,-0.38). Trained-champions also had a more positive perception of the practice environments than the controls in all dimensions (p ≤ 0.001). The largest differences in means were in the "Participation" dimension (-0.48; CI:-0.66,-0.31) and in the "Leadership" dimension (-0.41; CI:-0.59,-0.23).

Conclusions: Specific EBP training within the framework of the Best Practice Spotlight Organization® programme has succeeded in nurses (trained-champions) obtaining better EBP competence than others without this training. This could have contributed to increase nurses' abilities to integrate evidence into decision making in their clinical practice, while positively influencing them to perceive their PEs more favorably.

Keywords: Advanced practice nursing; Evidence-based practice; Nursing care; Outcome assessment, health care; Practice guideline.