Promoting Critical Care Nurses’ Information Literacy Through an Evidence-Based Practice Workshop: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Abstract

Background: Advanced nursing practice necessitates using research findings and evidence as well as effective clinical decision making. The use of evidence in nursing practice is not only a duty, but also a professional responsibility and practice. Objectives: The current study aimed at assessing the effects of an evidence-based practice training workshop on the information literacy of critical care nurses. Methods: The current 2-group, pretest-posttest, quasi-experimental study was conducted in 2016. A convenient sample of 90 critical care nurses was selected. Nurses were non-randomly allocated to a control and an experimental group 45 subject each group. An 8hour evidence-based practice training workshop was held in 2 consecutive days for nurses in the experimental group, while nurses in the control group received no evidence-based practice training. A researcher-made valid and reliable questionnaire was used to measure the information literacy in nurses. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS software version 19, and via running the Fisher exact, the pairedand independent-sample t tests. Results: At baseline, the mean score of information literacy in the control group did not differ significantly from that of the experimental group (9.668 ± 5.11 vs. 8.84 ± 4.37; P value = 0.40). After the study, these values increased to 10.51 ± 5.03 and 23.75 ± 3.07, respectively. Intergroup differences regarding the posttest information literacy score was statistically significant (P value < 0.001). Conclusions: The evidence-based practice training significantly promotes the information literacy in critical care nurses and paves the way for the use of evidence in their clinical practice.