Introduction
This Open Educational Resource is designed for the beginning undergraduate prelicensure nursing student that focuses on the key areas for a nurse to know when developing skills in evidence-based practice. It is formatted to complement a course that focuses on learning to appraise published literature, discern best evidence amongst published literature, and apply evidence to clinical practice for culmination of improved clinical outcomes. It is a single-authored, core textbook adapted from various textbooks, another evidence-based OER, and the author’s own creative works. The style of content will be focused with simplicity in order to motivate the student and enhance the application to practice. Students will find this textbook helpful in that it addresses, at a very beginning and simple level, relevant aspects of research and evidence with a focus on the foundations of research without overwhelming the reader with more advanced levels of research methodology and analyses. Students preparing to work in the nursing field will find the content useful due to the breadth of topics and systematic application of key theoretical and practical concepts.
The textbook is designed to help students gain and enhance learning skills with a constructive and scaffolded approach to appraising published evidence. Less emphasis is placed on conducting independent research; however, research methodologies are presented. The book integrates facets of information to assist in learning about evidence-based practice by utilizing inductive and deductive reasoning, utilizing professional and personal experiences, drawing conclusions based on reappearing themes throughout the chapters, visualizing helpful illustrations, embedded interactive questions, video tutorials, and incorporation of entry-level verbiage that is digestible, fun to read, and features scholarly yet entry-level readability.
The text is intended to be an introductory-level resource for prelicensure nursing students learning about evidence-based practice as it is not considered all inclusive, comprehensive, or at an advanced level.
The two main goals of the text:
- Provide information about evidence-based practice in nursing, with a focus on the confusing and muddy areas that are challenging when first learning about what evidence is and how to apply it.
- Provide opportunities to improve literacy when reading published evidence.
The book is segmented into sections and then further into modules. It is designed to be read from beginning to end. However, depending on length of course, multiple modules can be merged into a week of content, or extended one module at a time or a module split over two weeks, for a total 16-week semester.
AACN New Essentials
In 2021, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing published their New Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education which provides the educational framework for the preparation of nurses at four-year colleges and universities (AACN, 2021). Specific to evidence-based practice education is Domain 4: Scholarship for Nursing Discipline. The descriptor for Domain 4 is as follows:
“The generation, synthesis, translation, application, and dissemination of nursing knowledge to improve health and transform health care (AACN, 2018). Nursing scholarship informs science, enhances clinical practice, influences policy, and impacts best practices for educating nurses as clinicians, scholars, and leaders. Scholarship is inclusive of discovery, application, integration, and teaching. While not all inclusive, the scholarship of discovery includes primary empirical research, analysis of large data sets, theory development, and methodological studies. The scholarship of practice interprets, draws together, applies, and brings new insight to original research (Boyer, 1990; AACN 2018). Knowledge of the basic principles of the research process, including the ability to critique research and determine its applicability to nursing’s body of knowledge, is critical. Ethical comportment in the conduct and dissemination of research and advocacy for human subjects are essential components of nursing’s role in the process of improving health and health care. Whereas the research process is the generation of new knowledge, evidence-based practice (EBP) is the process for the application, translation, and implementation of best evidence into clinical decision-making. While evidence may emerge from research, EBP extends beyond just data to include patient preferences and values as well as clinical expertise. Nurses, as innovators and leaders within the interprofessional team, use the uniqueness of nursing in nurse-patient relationships to provide optimal care and address health inequities, structural racism, and systemic inequity” (AACN, 2021).
For the prelicensure bachelor of science nursing student, the core competencies are:
4.1 Advance the scholarship of nursing.
4.1a Demonstrate an understanding of different approaches to scholarly practice.
4.1b Demonstrate application of different levels of evidence.
4.1c Apply theoretical framework(s)/models in practice.
4.1d Demonstrate an understanding of basic elements of the research process.
4.1e Participate in scholarly inquiry as a team member.
4.1f Evaluate research.
4.1g Communicate scholarly findings.
4.2 Integrate best evidence into nursing practice.
4.1a Evaluate clinical practice to generate questions to improve nursing care.
4.2b Evaluate appropriateness and strength of the evidence.
4.2c Use best evidence in practice.
4.2d Participate in the implementation of a practice change to improve nursing care.
4.2e Participate in the evaluation of outcomes and their implications for practice.
4.3 Promote the ethical conduct of scholarly activities.
4.2a Explain the rationale for ethical research guidelines, including the Institutional Review Board (IRB) guidelines.
4.3b Demonstrate ethical behaviors in scholarly projects including quality improvement and EBP initiatives.
4.3c Advocate for the protection of participants in the conduct of scholarly initiatives.
4.3d Recognize the impact of equity issues in research.
This course and the EBP Project included within meets much of Domain 4, as noted in the rubrics and project synopsis.
Thank you to Erin Donovan, Ed.D., MSN, RN, CNE from Colorado Mesa University for her time peer reviewing the text.
References
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2021). The Essentials: Domain 4: Scholarship for the Nursing Discipline. https://www.aacnnursing.org/Essentials/Domains/Scholarship-for-the-Nursing-Discipline
