The 23-item Evidence Based Practice-Knowledge Attitudes and Practices (23-item EBP-KAP) survey: Initial validation among health professional students

Abstract

PurposeTo date, research exploring evidence-based practice (EBP) among students and early career professionals has been primarily discipline-specific and there is limited research considering the general university learning environment. When the education and application of EBP is studied, it mainly considers cognition and skills. There is a gap in the literature with respect to our understanding of EBP-related attitudes and practices alongside knowledge. This gap exists across health disciplines, as there is both limited EBP literature and a lack of generally applicable measures in this area to make transdisciplinary comparisons. MethodTwo studies, with independent samples, were conducted to psychometrically test a transdisciplinary survey of knowledge, attitudes, and practices of the use of evidence in academic and practice settings. One hundred and nine students from two health professional disciplines participated in Study 1 and 366 students from four health professional disciplines participated in Study 2. Students completed a self-administered paper-based or an online survey. ResultsResults from Study 1 directly informed Study 2. A confirmatory factor analysis confirmed in Study 2 that four subscales (knowledge, attitudes about EBP, professional practice and learning, information retrieval practices) discovered in Study 1 were a good fit to the data with an independent transdisciplinary sample. Divergent and construct validity were demonstrated through low covariances among the subscales and significant within-subject comparisons of mean differences between the subscales in both studies. DiscussionSufficient reliability and validity has been obtained to warrant continued use and testing. Next steps will include distributing the survey to students and healthcare professionals in other universities and other countries.