Walking the Walk: Integrating Evidence Into Clinical Experiences

Professional nurses are called to provide nursing care using an evidence-based approach. Health-care professionals are challenged to break away from old traditions and search for ways to improve health. Evidence-based practice (EBP) must be threaded throughout nursing curricula to produce critically-thinking professional nurses who will be meeting new and significant health-care challenges. Nursing education must be grounded in the translation of current evidence into practice. Nurse educators must acknowledge the obstacles faced when teaching concepts of research to students who have chosen a practice-focused career. The words evidence-based practice may be intimidating to nursing students. Nurse educators must shift this paradigm to invite students to realize that EBP is an integral component of modern health care that bridges the gap between health-care practices and improved patient outcomes. Faculty in a baccalaureate Adult Health course developed a unique approach inviting students to apply evidence to their student clinical experiences. Survey results showed that this innovative approach increased students' “excellent” or “good” understanding toward EBP concepts from pre-implementation scores of 46% to post-implementation scores of 94%. This active learning strategy allows students to “walk the walk” of EBP rather than simply listen to the “talk.”