Application of Evidence-based Practice in Intensive and Critical Care Nursing

Evidence-based solutions are the main point of high-quality and patient-centered care. Studies analyzing the implementation of evidence-based nursing are an integral part of quality improvement. The study aims to analyze the application of evidence-based practice in intensive and critical care nursing.

This research was performed in the Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Kaunas Clinics in intensive care units (ICU) departments in 2019. 202 critical care nurses participated in this survey (response rate 94.3%)—method of research – anonymous questionnaire. Research object – implementing evidence-based nursing practice among nurses working in intensive care units. Research instrument – questionnaire composed by McEvoy et al. (2010) [1]. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS 24.0 and MS Excel 2016 software. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse our sample and presented in percentages. Quantitive data are presented as mean with standard deviation (m±SD). Among exploratory groups, a p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Nurses with higher university education claim to know evidence-based nursing terminology better with a statistical significance (p= 0.001) and to have higher self-confidence in evidence application (p= 0.001) compared to nurses with professional or higher non-university education. It has been determined that age directly correlates with the implementation of evidence-based nursing: compared to their older colleagues, younger nurses have statistically significantly more knowledge (p= 0.001), skills (p= 0.012) and self-confidence when applying evidence (p= 0.001) as well as a more positive approach to evidence-based nursing (p= 0.041). Nurses whose total work experience exceeds 20 years have statistically significantly less knowledge of evidence-based practice terminology than nurses whose work experience is 10 years or less (p= 0.001). It has been determined that Intensive and Critical Care Nurses (ICU Nurses) with 10 years or less experience under their belt know the terms related to evidence-based nursing statistically significantly better (p= 0.001) and applies evidence-based knowledge in clinical practice more often, compared to nurses who have worked in the ICU for longer, e.g., 11-20 years or more than 20 years (p= 0.006). Compared to the nurses working in the ICU for 11-20 years, 10 years or less, those working for more than 20 years encounter statistically significantly more problems when applying an evidence-based approach in clinical practice (p=0.017).

Younger nurses with higher education and less general work experience tend to have more knowledge and a more positive approach to evidence-based nursing. Problems with an evidence-based approach in clinical practice more often occur in nurses who have worked in the ICU for more than 20 years. Most of the nurses who participated in the study claimed that the lack of time was one of the key problems when practicing evidence-based nursing.