Objective: Evidence-based practice (EBP) provides
nurses with a method to use critically appraised and
scientifically proven evidence for delivering quality
health care to a specific population. The objective of
this study was to explore nurses’ awareness of,
knowledge of, and attitude toward EBP and factors
likely to encourage or create barriers to adoption. In
addition, information sources used by nurses and
their literature searching skills were also investigated.
Method: A total of 2,100 copies of the questionnaire
were distributed to registered nurses in 2 public
hospitals in Singapore, and 1,486 completed forms
were returned, resulting in a response rate of 70.8%.
Results: More than 64% of the nurses expressed a
positive attitude toward EBP. However, they pointed
out that due to heavy workload, they cannot keep up
to date with new evidence. Regarding self-efficacy of
EBP-related abilities, the nurses perceived themselves
to possess moderate levels of skills. The nurses also
felt that EBP training, time availability, and mentoring
by nurses with EBP experience would encourage
them to implement EBP. The top three barriers to
adopting EBP were lack of time, inability to
understand statistical terms, and inadequate
understanding of the jargon used in research articles.
For literature searching, nurses were using basic
search features and less than one-quarter of them
were familiar with Boolean and proximity operators.
Conclusion: Although nurses showed a positive
attitude toward EBP, certain barriers were hindering
their smooth adoption. It is, therefore, desirable that
hospital management in Southeast Asia, particularly
in Singapore, develop a comprehensive strategy for
building EBP competencies through proper training.
Moreover, hospital libraries should also play an active
role in developing adequate information literacy skills
among the nurses.