Last update:
27-Sep-2017

Despite growing interest in evidence-based practice (EBP) its implementation in clinical practice has been proved to be a cumbersome process. This is a literature review of the attitudes and knowledge of psychiatric nurses about EBP development. A systematic, comprehensive, bibliographic search was made using terms chosen from the USNLM Institutes of Health list of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and free text key terms. Articles were selected based on specific inclusion criteria in terms of titles or abstracts. The search identified 92 potentially relevant papers, of which 6 were included after appraisal by two independent reviewers. The results, which were extracted and synthesized into a narrative text, indicated that although psychiatric nurses are now more aware of and open to the idea of EBP and understand the importance of its implementation in daily practice, their relevant skills remain moderate to low. In general, nurses consider patients and personal experience as their main source of knowledge. Only slightly more than one third considers themselves capable of reviewing, critically appraising and implementing research evidence to change practices. This review confirmed that nurse-patient interaction constitutes an important source of practice knowledge in the psychiatric health care setting. There is a need for further research investigating EBP implementation among psychiatric nurses, which should focus on the predictors of EBP and effective strategies for teaching EBP and enhancing its implementation in psychiatric nursing practice.

Key words: Evidence-based practice, Implementation, Mental health, Nurses, Psychiatric nursing.