Teaching evidence-based practice (EBP) in nursing curricula in six European countries-A descriptive study

Abstract

Background: Teaching evidence-based practice (EBP) in nursing education varies among nurse educators and universities. Lack of nurses' knowledge and skills are among the barriers commonly associated with the limited use of EBP in practice.

Objectives: To describe the presence, characteristics and content of courses of EBP in nursing bachelor's, master's, and PhD programs in six European countries.

Design: A descriptive study design was employed.

Settings: The study was implemented as part of the EBP e-Toolkit Project as a strategic partnership of six European higher education institutions from six countries in the framework of the Erasmus+ Programme.

Participants: Census sampling (N = 225) was used. A total of 162 (72%) faculties responded from the following countries: Spain (79), Italy (44), the Czech Republic (15), Poland (12), Greece (7), and Slovenia (5).

Methods: Three structured instruments were developed by using the consensus development panel. The research was conducted from December 2018 to March 2019. For names of subjects, a manual narrative Template Analysis was used with open descriptive coding.

Results: Subjects in "EBP in Nursing or Health Care" are included in 45 (29.2%) bachelor's programs, mostly worth 180 European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits, 30 (28%) master's, and 6 (40%) PhD programs. In bachelor's programs, an average of 134 h are spent teaching EBP steps, followed by 127 h in master's programs and 52 h in PhD programs. EBP subjects have different focuses: clear topics in EBP, development of research knowledge, awareness of the need for evidence-based clinical work, and understanding the needs of the profession.

Conclusions: Teaching EBP is not yet sufficiently integrated into nursing curricula. For more efficient integration, guidelines on the standardization of teaching approaches and content have to be developed in all three cycles of higher education. Further research is needed on the implementation of teaching at master's and PhD levels of nursing curricula.