Critical Care Nurses' knowledge , attitude and practice in Yazd University of Medical Sciences' Teaching Hospitals on Evidence-Based Nursing

Introduction: Evidence-based nursing is the process in which the nurse can use the available research evidences, his/her clinical skills and patient preferences for appropriate clinical decision making. This study aimed to identify the knowledge, attitude and practice of intensive care nurses on evidence-based nursing in the teaching hospitals of Yazd University of Medical Sciences Hospitals. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive study, with census sampling, all of the 120 nurses working in ICU and CCU departments were selected. Tool used to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practice of nurses was a standard questionnaire which was translated to Farsi. Collected data were analyzed using the statistical software SPSS 18, T-Test, correlation coefficient, ANOVA and frequency distributions. Results: The mean knowledge score was 22.35 ± 4.31 out of 38, the mean of attitude score was 23.88 ± 1.86 out of 29 and the mean of practice score was 28.56 ± 3.59 out of 37. The results about the knowledge, attitude and practice of nurses on evidence-based nursing indicated that the mean knowledge score had a significant relationship with gender (p=0.001), age (p=0.009) and work experience (p=0.004). The mean attitude score had a significant relationship with age (p=0.001). The mean of practice score had a significant relationship with gender (p=0.001), age (p=0.006) and with work experience (p=0.004). Also, there was a significant relationship betwean the mean of knowledge score and mean practice scores (p=0.001). Findings of this study showed that nurses have a positive attitude toward evidence-based nursing but most of them had moderate and low levels of knowledge and performance about it. Conclusions: Based on the results of this study, the need to educate nurses about evidence-based practice in the form of practical and workshop training, provideing facilities for evidence based nursing, nurses' participation in clinical research and establishing a view point of supporting research-based care seems necessary.