Supervision of clinical practice indicators: evidence-based practice in the context of the surgical patient

Abstract

Introduction: Clinical supervision and evidence-based practice (EBP) must be understood as complementary and
inseparable practices considering the positive results they produce in health quality. Objectives: To assess nurses’
predisposition to incorporate EBP in care and identify barriers to the implementation of EBP in their workplaces. Material and Methods: An exploratory-descriptive study, carried out in an outpatient surgery unit of a University Hospital in Porto, Portugal, was conducted. Data were collected using the Clinical Effectiveness and Evidence-Based Practice Questionnaire (QECPBE-20) applied to a non-probabilistic intentional sample of forty-nine nurses. Results: Nurses were in favour of EBP according to the dimension “Attitudes” (M=5.36), which had the highest average score, followed by “Knowledge, Skills and Competences” (M=5.08) and, finally, “Practices” (M=4.89). Participants with training in clinical supervision showed higher values in the dimension "Knowledge, Skills and Competencies" than those without training in clinical supervision. Moreover, nurses with a specialization scored higher values in the dimension "Attitudes". The barriers identified by nurses are summarized in four categories: organizational, professional, leadership and evidence. Conclusions: Nurses revealed knowledge and a positive attitude towards EBP. However, they showed a low rate of EBP utilization in their daily practice. Lack of time, lack of effort by managers and difficulty in accessing scientific evidence are some of the challenges identified.