Elsevier

Nurse Education Today

Volume 64, May 2018, Pages 5-10
Nurse Education Today

Health professions faculty beliefs, confidence, use, and perceptions of organizational culture and readiness for EBP: A cross-sectional, descriptive survey☆

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2018.02.003Get rights and content

Abstract

Background

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is an essential skill and ethical obligation for all practicing health professions clinicians because of its strong association with improved health outcomes. Emerging evidence suggests that faculty who prepare these clinicians lack proficiency to teach EBP.

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to describe; 1) health profession faculty beliefs about and confidence in their ability to teach and implement EBP, 2) use of EBP for education, 3) organizational culture and readiness for EBP; and to determine whether relationships exist among these variables.

Design

This study used a cross-sectional, descriptive survey design.

Setting and Participants

College of Nursing (CON) and College of Health Professions (CHP) faculty from a university located in the Northeast, United States. Faculty were defined as anyone teaching a course for the CON or CHP during the fall of 2016.

Methods

Faculty were invited to complete an electronic survey measuring EBP beliefs, EBP use, and EBP organizational culture and readiness. The survey was comprised of three tools developed specifically for health professions educators in 2010 by Fineout-Overholt & Melnyk.

Results

Sixty-nine faculty returned usable surveys (25.5% response rate). Mean EBP beliefs score was 89.49 (SD = 10.94) indicating respondents had a firm belief in and confidence in their ability to implement and teach EBP. Mean EBP use was 32.02 (SD = 20.59) indicating that respondents taught and implemented EBP between 1 and 3 times in the last 8-weeks. Mean EBP culture and readiness score was 90.20 (SD = 15.23) indicating essential movement toward a sustainable culture of college-wide integration of EBP. Mean scores for beliefs/confidence were higher for full-time clinical faculty compared to other groups [F(2, 55) = 0.075, p = 0.928; ηp2 = 0.003)]. Adjunct faculty reported higher EBP behaviors expected by health profession educators in the last 8-weeks compared to other groups [F(2, 55) = 0.251, p = 0.779; ηp2.

=0.009)]. Adjunct faculty had the highest mean scores on OCRSIEP-E followed by full-time clinical faculty. These group differences in OCRSIEP-E were statistically significant [F(2, 49) = 7.92, p = 0.001; ηp2 = 0.244)]. OCRSIEP-E was significantly different between full-time tenure/tenure track faculty (M = 78.0, SD = 12.58) and full-time clinical faculty (M = 91.37, SD = 14.79, p = 0.027) and between full-time tenure/tenure track faculty and adjunct faculty (M = 97.19, SD = 12.39, p = 0.001).

Conclusions

Faculty adoption of EBP as a foundational pillar of teaching is essential. Research is needed to define the scope of the problem internationally. Organizations need to set standards for faculty teaching in the health professions to be EBP proficient. Programs preparing faculty to teach in nursing and other health professions must include educator EBP competencies.

Section snippets

Background

Evidence based practice (EBP) is a problem-solving approach to how healthcare is delivered that integrates best available evidence with a clinicians' expertise and patient values and preferences (Melnyk and Fineout-Overholt, 2015). EBP is the gold standard for clinical practice for health professions disciplines and has been endorsed as a core competency by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) since 2003 (Institute of Medicine, 2003). The EBP process has been associated with improved healthcare

Design and Participants

Using a cross-sectional, descriptive survey design, all College of Nursing (CON) and College of Health Professions (CHP) faculty from a university in the Northeast, United States were invited to complete an electronic survey measuring EBP beliefs, EBP use, and EBP organizational culture and readiness. Faculty were defined as anyone teaching a course for the CON or CHP during the fall of 2016.

Measures

The survey was comprised of the following tools developed specifically for health professions educators

Results

Seventy surveys were returned of which 69 were complete for a response rate of 25.5%. Eighty-eight percent of the respondents were female (n = 60). Respondents' ages ranged from 24 to 90 years (M = 48.56); years practicing in profession ranged from 3 to 50 years (M = 23.90); and years in higher education ranged from 1 to 40 years (M = 9.36). Forty-two percent (n = 27) of respondents were adjunct faculty, 36% (n = 24) were full-time clinical faculty, and 20% (n = 13) were full-time tenure track

Discussion

If clinical decision making is to be wholly based on evidence, the faculty who train healthcare professionals should have strong beliefs in and confidence to use EBP in their daily academic practice. Moreover, academic settings should foster a teaching practice based on the EBP process and create a college-wide culture that supports EBP. In this descriptive survey study, health professions faculty had strong beliefs and confidence in their ability to teach and implement EBP however, regular use

Limitations

These results should be viewed within the context of the following limitations. This study used a single setting and convenience sampling. The response rate was 25.5% and to increase participation, CON and CHP program directors were asked to announce the study at their faculty meeting, as well as intermittent email reminders to participate in this study. Another email survey study was going on at the same time and survey fatigue (Olson, 2014) may in part explain the lower response rate. Faculty

Conclusion

This study represents a small segment of health professions faculty perceptions of EBP related to their academic practice therefore, a national study is needed to further define the scope of the problem in higher education. There is a need to identify effective interventions for building EBP behaviors and organizational culture in academia. For starters, colleges and universities dedicated to training health professionals need to examine their mission and philosophy and add EBP if missing.

Funding

This work was supported by a University Research and Creativity Grant (URCG) from the University that employs the authors.

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    • Cited by (0)

    ☆

    This work was funded by a University Research and Creative Grant (URCG) from Sacred Heart University (SP2014).

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