Critical Care Nurses' Perceptions towards the Challenges to Adoption of Evidence-Based Practice in the Intensive Care Units (ICUs)

Intensive care is a specialty characterized by its complexity, the frequency of life-threatening
conditions, and the need for rapid decision-making. Although the adoption of evidence-based practice
(EBP) to the critical care nursing practice improves patient outcomes and reduces costs and the risk
of harm, there is a gap between recommendations for EBP and critical care nurses' actual practice in
intensive care units. Besides, the range of challenges regarding the adoption of evidence-based
practice has been identified and extensively determined by researchers in many countries. Objective:
Explore the critical care professional nurses' perceptions towards challenges to the adoption of
evidence-based practice in intensive care units. Settings: Data were collected from all ICUs in three
teaching hospitals at the University of Alexandria. Subjects: A convenient sample of 100 professional
nurses working in the ICUs was recruited. Tool: Data were collected using adapted, self-reported,
paper-pencil, and two-part questionnaire. Results: The study included 100 nurses working in the ICU.
Among all the challenges that hindered the adoption of EBP in ICUs, "Insufficient time to read about
or implement new ideas because of the shortage of nurses' number, heavy workload & a high number
of patients" was the highest organizational challenge. The most frequent individual challenge was
"The workload is too high to keep up to date with all new evidence". The highest research quality
challenge was "Research reports/articles are not readily available". Conclusion: This study reveals
that unfamiliarity about concept of EBP and lack of training as well as other organizational,
individual and research factors are challenges facing adoption of EBP. The findings of the current
study can help identify challenges that effectively influence EBP adoption in the ICUs and overcome
them. Recommendations: Intensive care authorities should make EBP a cornerstone for the provided
nursing care