Nurse leaders' Attitudes, Self-Efficacy and training Needs for Implementing Evidence-Based Practice: Is It Time for a Change toward Safe Care?

INTRODUCTION: Evidence-based practice (EBP) has been recognized as the gold standard for safe and high quality care. Nurse leaders have a strategic position in terms of initiating changes in clinical settings for successfully implementing EBP. Therefore, the factors that influence implementing EBP must be measured. AIMS: To examine nurse leaders' attitudes, self-efficacy, and training needs for implementing evidence-based practice. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY: Four teaching hospitals affiliated to Kerman University of Medical Sciences in the southeast of Iran from January to April 2014. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 70 nurse leaders from four teaching hospitals. After using a modified forward/backward translation procedure to create a Persian version of “perceptions of nurses of evidence-based practice questionnaire”, data were collected from the participants and analyzed using SPSS (version 20), descriptive statistics, Student's t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Pearson's correlation. RESULTS: Most (82.86%) of the participants had not attended any specific training course on the implementation of EBP and 80% had not been involved in any research activities. Nurse leaders' attitudes toward EBP were unfavorable (mean=2.55±0.88), their levels of self-efficacy in EBP skills were weak (mean=2.64±1.31), and their demand for training in all of the EBP areas was moderate (3.89±.97). CONCLUSION: Current practice of nurse leaders is not evidence-based, which is worrisome and can result in serious deficiencies in the quality and safety of nursing care. Nurse leaders must attempt to equip themselves with the attitudes and skills required to change in practice using EBP.