Comment For This
Even though there is growing awareness of the importance of evidence-based practice, in education there is a reported gap between what has been found by research to be effective and what educators use and practice in their daily work. “A new national survey of more than 1,000 RNs suggests that resistance from nursing leaders and other barriers prevent nurses from implementing evidence-based practices that improve patient outcomes. When survey respondents ranked these barriers, the most frequently mentioned also included politics and organizational cultures that avoid change.” (Nurse.com, 2012) When asked what would help them implement evidence-based practice, respondents reported education, access to information and organizational support among their top needs.
Another barrier can be policies in certain agencies. Although agencies often report that they support evidence based practice, when it comes to making even the best evidence-supported changes in policy or procedures, recommendations can and do still meet with resistance. Commonly identified individual barriers reported include lack of knowledge about research methods, poor awareness of research findings, and negative attitude towards having to do research which then leads to not having a certain policy or procedure in place.
When looking at the challenges that come up in the process of implementing evidence based practice in areas of work many things can be prevented by addressing the issues at hand and start using more evidence based practice. By addressing these dilemmas, challenges can be minimized, although not totally avoided or eliminated. By creating the ability to commit necessary resources to implement EBP approach in its entirety, including providing relevant and ongoing training for all workers.