Key considerations for selecting instruments when evaluating healthcare professionals’ evidence‐based practice competencies: A discussion paper

Aim A discussion of key considerations related to selecting instruments and tools for evaluating healthcare professionals’ evidence‐based practice (EBP) competencies. Design A discussion paper. Data Sources Articles published in international peer‐reviewed journals from January 2000 ‐ November 2017 on validated instruments for assessing healthcare professionals’ performance‐based EBP competencies. Implications for Nursing Validated EBP competency instruments based on actual performance to evaluate the EBP competencies of healthcare professionals are currently available in the field of medicine. Although some of these instruments have already been adapted for use in physical and occupational therapy, their modification for use in nursing has begun only in the last few months. Conclusion A concerted effort on modifying and validating objective measures of actual performance for use in nursing should be commenced to evaluate directly measurable EBP competencies, instead of continuing to rely on nurses’ self‐assessments. Future studies focusing on development and validation of objective instruments to evaluate EBP competencies based on actual performance and exploring the modification of currently available objective instruments from medicine are urgently needed in nursing. Impact Instead of measuring actual EBP competencies, the majority of competency evaluations in nursing are still being conducted via self‐assessments, despite growing evidence of their poor accuracy in evaluating directly measurable constructs such as evidence‐based practice knowledge and skills. Accurate measurement of nurses’ EBP competencies is essential to increasing systematic implementation of EBP in healthcare organizations, thus promoting the attainment of improved care quality and patient outcomes in healthcare delivery. 摘要 目的 旨在对评估医疗保健专业人员循证实践(EBP)能力而选择工具时应考虑的关键因素进行探讨。 设计 讨论文件。 数据来源 2000年1月至2017年11月在国际同行评审期刊上发表的一些文章,这些文章与评估医疗保健专业人员基于绩效的循证实践能力的有效工具有关。 对护理学的意义 基于实际绩效评估医疗保健专业人员的循证实践能力的有效工具目前可以在医学领域中使用。虽然这些仪器中的一些已经适用于物理疗法和职业疗法,但对这些工具进行改进然后将其用于护理学仅在最近几个月才开始。 结论 我们应该开始齐心协力改进和验证用于护理学的实际绩效的客观测量,以评估可以直接衡量的循证实践能力,而不是继续依赖护士的自我评估。未来的研究应主要集中在开发和验证用来评估基于实际绩效的循证实践能力的客观工具,并探索如何改进目前在医学中可以使用的客观工具,这一点对于护理学来说是迫切需要的。 影响 尽管越来越多的证据表明自我评估在评估可以直接衡量的概念(如循证实践知识和技能)方面的准确性较差,但大多数护理能力评估仍然是通过自我评估进行的,而不是通过衡量实际的循证实践能力。准确衡量护士的循证实践能力对于在医疗保健组织中不断加强循证实践的系统实施至关重要,从而促进在提供医疗保健服务的过程中改善护理质量和病人的恢复结果。