Knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding trading intensive care nurses on evidence-based practice at an academic hospital in Gauteng.
Date
2014-03-27
Authors
Kumwenda, Wezzie M
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Abstract
Background: Despite many advances on evidence-based practice (EBP), nursing is still not based on evidence. Trained intensive care unit (ICU) nurses may be the key to EBP in the ICU.
Purpose: To describe the knowledge, attitudes and practices of trained ICU nurses on EBP at an academic hospital in Gauteng.
Design: Mixed methods sequential explanatory.
Method: Data were collected from trained ICU nurses who were purposely selected using a validated tool (Upton & Upton, 2006) to obtain the quantitative results on their knowledge, attitudes and practices on EBP (n=100) and then followed up with 12 expert trained ICU nurses in two focus groups to explore the quantitative results in more depth. The quantitative and qualitative findings were then combined at discussion of results.
Results: From the quantitative results, the majority of the nurses selected the best category: 81.0% on knowledge towards EBP, 75.0% on attitudes towards EBP and 75.0% on practices towards EBP. The qualitative results identified three categories: perceptions, challenges and suggestions. The trained ICU nurses were knowledgeable in their understanding of EBP but lacked knowledge in the skills of accessing evidence. Welcoming attitudes towards EBP were displayed but admitted to their practices being partly evidence-based due to challenges that included resistance to change, confusion of evidence, lack of resources, time and autonomy. The instrument was found to be reliable and valid with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.94 for the entire questionnaire and the study increased its validity in the South African context.
This study indicates that although trained ICU nurses are knowledgeable about EBP, they are still lacking in skills regarding EBP. Even though the trained ICU nurses have welcoming attitudes towards EBP, their practices towards EBP are not fully evidence-based due to the identified challenges. This study therefore suggests capacity building of the trained ICU nurses as well as development of their EBP skills to support EBP.
Description
A research report submitted to the Faculty of Health Science, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg ,in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Nursing, September, 2013