EBP Educational Programme in Nursing Students' EBP Beliefs and Knowledge, and the Extent of Their EBP Implementation
Condition: Evidence-Based Nursing
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      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.
    

Detailed description: 
      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:

        -  Sample: For sample size calculation it was used the software G*Power 3.1.9.2. Power
           analysis was based on a type I error of 0.05; power of 0.80; effect size f=0.25; and
           ANOVA: repeated measures between factors determined a total sample size of 92. In a
           Portuguese nursing school, six optional courses of the 8th semester of the nursing
           graduation were randomly assigned to experimental (EBP educational programme) or control
           group (no intervention - education as usual). An independent researcher performed this
           assignment using random.org.

        -  Intervention: The EBP educational programme will be implemented over 17 weeks (12 hours
           of lessons - expositive method and practice method and 3 sessions of mentorship to small
           groups of students - 2/3 students - with the duration of 2 hours each).

        -  Assessment: All participants will be assessed before (week 0) and after the intervention
           (week 18) by a blind assessor using the validated instruments to assess undergraduate
           nursing students' EBP beliefs, the extent of their EBP implementation and their
           knowledge in EBP.

        -  Data analysis: The data will be analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social
           Sciences (SPSS) to conduct a descriptive and inferential analysis. To minimize the
           noncompliance impact, the intention to treat analysis - Last observation carried forward
           will be used.
    

Intervention name(s): EBP Educational Programme
Intervention type(s): Other
Intervention description(s): The educational EBP programme will include 12 hours of classroom lessons regarding EBP more 6 hours of mentorship made to a small groups of students (2 or 3 students per group).
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Other
Keywords: undergraduate nursing students; evidence based practice beliefs; evidence based practice knowledge; evidence based practice implementation; Evidence based practice Education programme