Implementation of evidence-based practice and its correlates among nurses working in southern Ethiopia

Abstract

BackgroundEvidence-based utilization is crucial for improving overall patient care quality, nursing practice, and building trust in decision-making with patient preferences to solve clinical challenges in patient care, but its practice is relatively low. ObjectiveTo assess the implementation of evidence-based practice (IEBP) and its correlates among nurses working in west Arsi zone public hospitals, Ethiopia. MethodAn institutional-based cross-sectional study design was employed using structured, interviewer-administered, pretested data from June 1 to July 30, 2022 and entered into epidata version 4.4.1 statistical software and exported to SPSS version 25 for further analysis. ResultsA total of 385 nurses responded the questionnaire, with 100 % response rate. Majority of participants 194 (50.4 %) were females with mean age of 32.02 (SD ± 6.8) years. The overall mean implementation of EBP among nurses was found to be 11.4 ± 8.53. Attitude, self-efficacy, working in referral hospital, being diploma in the level of education (β: −3.925; 95 % CI:(-6.399- (-1.451), knowledge of nurses toward EBP (β: 1.213; 95 % CI: 0.989–1.438) and availability of job rotation (β: 3.475; 95 % CI: 1.20–3.750) were significantly associated with the mean score of EBP utilization at a p-value ≤ 0.001. ConclusionA significant proportion of nurses use evidence-based practice infrequently. Knowledge, Attitude, self-efficacy, hospital level, level of education, and availability of job rotation, were the variables that contributed to the low utilization of evidence-based practice. It is recommended that integrating EBP training into nursing education curricula, establishing EBP training workshops, and research mentorship programs at the workplace are needed.