Other Titles
Student-Related Trends in Nursing Education
Abstract
Session presented on Saturday, July 23, 2016:
Evidence-based practice (EBP) is an important component in improving the health care outcomes of a country's population. Despite the importance and relevance of EBP to nursing, nurses do not routinely understand and use evidence-based principles in their everyday practice. This may influence the attitudes and knowledge of students who do not become exposed to the practice of EBP during their training. Nurses, who are considered to be the backbone of the health care profession, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, should be introduced to the basic principles of EBP during their pre-registration programmes. Moreover, EBP teaching input should be both theoretical and practical with a continuity throughout the whole nursing programme. The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge of, attitudes towards and application of EBP by nursing students from the College of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Rwanda. The study design was quantitative, descriptive and non-experimental. An anonymous, self-reported questionnaire was used to collect data from third- and fourth-year nursing students from the College of Medicine and Health Sciences. Ethical approval was obtained from the Human Research Ethics Committee at the University of Cape Town's Health Sciences Faculty, and from the Directorate of Science, Technology and Research at the Rwandan Ministry of Education. Data were analysed by means of descriptive statistics. The results indicated that most of the third- and fourth-year nursing students at the University of Rwanda had some knowledge of EBP. Thus, respondents reported some negative attitudes towards EBP; no relationship between the respondents' attitudes and their year of study was noted. Only 12% (n=10) of the respondents reported accessing evidence every day. Most respondents reported using the Internet as their primary source of evidence, with limited use of best evidence databases such Cochrane and Medline. The most common barriers to the implementation of EBP were lack of knowledge, lack of time, and the lack of examples or role modelling from lecturers, clinical instructors and nurse. Further efforts to integrate EBP as a continuous theoretical and practical part of the nursing curriculum should be made in order to promote the effective use of evidence in practice by students at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Rwanda.
Sigma Membership
Unknown
Type
Presentation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
N/A
Research Approach
N/A
Keywords:
Nursing Students, Evidenced-Based Practice, Evidenced-Based Nursing
Recommended Citation
Iradukunda, Favorite and Mayers, Pat M., "Nursing students' knowledge, attitudes, and application of evidence-based practice at the University of Rwanda" (2016). INRC (Congress). 331.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/inrc/2016/presentations_2016/331
Conference Name
27th International Nursing Research Congress
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Cape Town, South Africa
Conference Year
2016
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Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Nursing students' knowledge, attitudes, and application of evidence-based practice at the University of Rwanda
Cape Town, South Africa
Session presented on Saturday, July 23, 2016:
Evidence-based practice (EBP) is an important component in improving the health care outcomes of a country's population. Despite the importance and relevance of EBP to nursing, nurses do not routinely understand and use evidence-based principles in their everyday practice. This may influence the attitudes and knowledge of students who do not become exposed to the practice of EBP during their training. Nurses, who are considered to be the backbone of the health care profession, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, should be introduced to the basic principles of EBP during their pre-registration programmes. Moreover, EBP teaching input should be both theoretical and practical with a continuity throughout the whole nursing programme. The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge of, attitudes towards and application of EBP by nursing students from the College of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Rwanda. The study design was quantitative, descriptive and non-experimental. An anonymous, self-reported questionnaire was used to collect data from third- and fourth-year nursing students from the College of Medicine and Health Sciences. Ethical approval was obtained from the Human Research Ethics Committee at the University of Cape Town's Health Sciences Faculty, and from the Directorate of Science, Technology and Research at the Rwandan Ministry of Education. Data were analysed by means of descriptive statistics. The results indicated that most of the third- and fourth-year nursing students at the University of Rwanda had some knowledge of EBP. Thus, respondents reported some negative attitudes towards EBP; no relationship between the respondents' attitudes and their year of study was noted. Only 12% (n=10) of the respondents reported accessing evidence every day. Most respondents reported using the Internet as their primary source of evidence, with limited use of best evidence databases such Cochrane and Medline. The most common barriers to the implementation of EBP were lack of knowledge, lack of time, and the lack of examples or role modelling from lecturers, clinical instructors and nurse. Further efforts to integrate EBP as a continuous theoretical and practical part of the nursing curriculum should be made in order to promote the effective use of evidence in practice by students at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Rwanda.