The Effectiveness of an Evidence Based Practice (EBP) Educational Programme in Undergraduate Nursing Students' EBP Beliefs and Knowledge, and the Extent of Their EBP Implementation: A Cluster Randomized Control Trial
The Effectiveness of an Evidence Based Practice (EBP) Educational Programme in Undergraduate Nursing Students' EBP Beliefs and Knowledge, and the Extent of Their EBP Implementation: A Cluster Randomized Control Trial
Evidence-based practice (EBP) prevents unsafety/inefficiency and improves healthcare quality. However, EBP implementation and sustainment are challenging for healthcare organizations and providers considering gaps between research and practice. An educational preparation of the future healthcare professionals can minimize these gaps. Thus, it is mandatory that undergraduate curricula in health sciences, namely in nursing, promote an EBP culture so that future health professionals use it into clinical practice. Within the Portuguese context, there is no available scientific literature about the current state of EBP integration in the undergraduate nursing curricula. Thereby, the investigators intend to verify if an EBP educational programme would be successful in improving the undergraduate nursing students' EBP knowledge and beliefs and, and the extent of their EBP implementation This will be tested using a prospective cluster randomized control trial with two-armed parallel group design.
Evidence-Based Practice (EBP), also known as Evidence-Informed Practice, could be defined as a "clinical decision-making that considers the best available evidence; the context in which the care is delivered; client preference; and the professional judgment of the health professional".
It has been recognizing that the adoption, implementation and sustainment of EBP in healthcare organizations are very important to promotes high-value health care, improves the patient experience and health outcomes, and reduces health care costs.
In consequence, several organizations acclaim EBP implementation, because this implementation improves the quality of care; reduces the uncertainty, risk and variability; and becomes the decision-making more simplified. Moreover, Dawes et al at the "Sicily statement on evidence-based practice" highlighted that "all health care professionals need to understand the principles of EBP, recognize EBP in action, implement evidence-based policies, and have a critical attitude to their own practice and to evidence".
Nevertheless, nowadays EBP is not the standard of care in the world and some studies recognized education as a strategy to promotes the adoption, implementation and sustainment of EBP.
In fact, the Committee on the Health Professions Education Summit in 2003 recommended the development of competencies regarding the EBP use in all health professional educational programs. Therefore, it is important that undergraduate nursing curricula are based on EBP principles to educate the future nurses to use EBP into clinical practice. This will, consequently, improve health outcomes, with a positive impact in patients' safety, costs and health systems. Regardless of the above recommendation, the nursing curricula still provide contents related to traditional nursing research and do not integrate the EBP content and process.
Therefore, this randomized control trial aims to evaluate the effectiveness of an educational EBP programme in undergraduate nursing students' EBP beliefs and knowledge, and the extent of their EBP implementation. This study will have two arms: experimental group (EBP educational program) and control group (no intervention - education as usual) and it will have the following methodology:
Inclusion Criteria:
Exclusion Criteria:
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