Nursing Faculty Publications

Changes in Nursing Students' Perceptions of Research and Evidence-based Practice after Completing a Research Course

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-1-2017

Journal Title

Nurse Education Today

ISSN

1532-2793

Volume

54

First Page

37

Last Page

43

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2017.04.007

PubMed ID

28463732

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Nurses need a sound education in research and evidence-based practice (EBP) to provide patients with optimal care, but current teaching methods could be more effective.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the changes in nursing students 1) perceptions of research and EBP, 2) confidence in research and EBP, and 3) interest in research participation after completing a course in research and EBP.

DESIGN: A pre-post assessment design was utilized to compare changes in students.

SETTINGS: This project was conducted at a small, private liberal arts institution with Bachelor of Science (BSN) students.

PARTICIPANTS: Two cohorts of third-year BSN students (Year 1 N=55, Year 2 N=54) who were taking a required, semester-long Nursing Research and EBP course.

METHODS: Students' perceptions of and confidence in research and EBP were assessed pre- and post-semester using the Confidence in Research and EBP survey, which contained 7 demographic items, 9 Research Perceptions items, and 19 Confidence in Research items (5-point Likert scale; 1=Not at all confident, 5=Extremely confident). Two years of data were collected and analyzed in SPSS v.24.0. Wilcoxon signed-ranks tests and Mann-Whitney-U tests were utilized to examine the data.

RESULTS: Students had significant improvements in perceptions of and confidence in research and EBP (p

CONCLUSIONS: A Research and EBP course is an effective way to improve student perceptions of and confidence in research and EBP, increasing the likelihood of applying these skills to future nursing practice.

Keywords

Confidence, evidence-based practice, nursing students, perceptions, research

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