Routines for change: how managers can use absorptive capacity to adopt and implement evidence-based practice

Aims This paper uses the construct of absorptive capacity to understand how nurse managers can facilitate the adoption and use of evidence‐based practice within health‐care organisations. Background How health‐care organisations adopt and implement innovations such as new evidence‐based practices will depend on their absorptive, or learning, capacity. Absorptive capacity manifests as routines, which are the practices, procedures and customs that organisational members use to carry out work and to make work‐related decisions. Methods Using the construct of absorptive capacity as well as a recent literature review of how health‐care organisations take on best practices, we illustrate how the uptake and use of new knowledge, such as evidence‐based practices, can be facilitated through the use of routines. Implications for nursing management This paper highlights routines that nurse managers can use to foster environments where evidence‐based practices can be readily identified, and strategies for facilitating their adoption and implementation. Conclusions The construct of absorptive capacity and the use of routines can be used to examine the ways in which nurse managers can adopt, implement and evaluate the use of evidence‐based practices.