Background: Evidence-based nursing (EBN) practice is the leading strategy for advancing the nursing profession to a modern style which is more efficient and effective. Introducing the evidence-based practice concept and method to clinical nurses, and measuring its outcomes are great challenges for nursing administrators.
Objectives:
1) To develop a 1-year standardised training programme and implement it for 3 years; and,
2) to measure the nurses’ achievements based on the Joanna Briggs Institute evidence model.
Methods: The training programme was developed by the nursing research committee in the Department of Nursing. The education session contained two parts, the first part was mainly teaching the 5A steps of evidence-based practice for 5 days. The second part focused on clinical practice. The trainees were divided into several groups, an EBN-trained tutor was assigned to a group for a year, coached the group to formulate a PICO question related to their work environment and went through the 5A steps.
After the training programme, the outcomes were measured based on the JBI model of evidence-based healthcare. All PICO questions and the clinical-implementing status were analysed by two reviewers.
Results: After 3 years of training sessions, 34 PICO questions were generated in total; and 31 PICO questions completed the 5A steps. 25 PICOs were submitted abstracts and were accepted at international conferences, including 19 oral and 6 poster presentations, and 13 PICOs have won EBN rewards from different government-funded institutions in Taiwan. Four PICOs were published in peer-reviewed journals within 2 years. Furthermore, the result of one PICO was integrated into the clinical nursing standard in the study hospital and disseminated into the daily activity of nurses through the nursing informatics system. Another PICO changed the nursing standards of procedure in the clinical setting.
Conclusions: The findings of this study could provide recommendations and strategies for future implementation of the EBN training programme for clinical nurses, and as a reference for nursing researchers and educators.