Nursing Educators' Knowledge, Skills in Evidence-Based Practice and their Critical Thinking Skills: Self Report Study

Abstract

Background: With increasing emphasis on EBNP, nursing educators need to have a strong body of knowledge and skills in EBP that help them to gain critical thinking skills related to inquiry and understand the importance of EBNP. Aims: To assess the nursing educators' report of their knowledge and skills in EBP, determine their critical thinking skills and investigate the relationship between their knowledge and skills in EBP and their critical thinking skills. Method: Two questionnaires were filled by 144 of nursing educators at nine academic nursing departments at the Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University. Findings: The mean score percentage of the nursing educator's report of their knowledge and skills in EBP were 67.7±15.8 and 68.9±14.3 respectively. Furthermore, the highest mean score percentage of nursing educators' skills in critical thinking was found in their inquisitiveness skills (75.0±7.7). On the other hand, the lowest mean score percentage was found in truth seeking (55.5±11.6) and maturity skills (56.6±2.7). Highly significant positive correlations were found between the overall mean score percentages of nursing educators’ report of their knowledge and skills in EBP from one side and their critical thinking skills (r= 0.408, p .000, r=0.321, p .000). Conclusions: Understanding nursing educators' knowledge and skills in EBP is a critical step to successfully transforming the school's culture to an EB framework for teaching nursing practice, integrating of EBP content into curricula, and ensuring student mastery and appreciation of EBP.

Keywords: evidence-based practice, knowledge, skills, critical thinking, nursing educators