Background: Evidence Based Practice (EBP) is a popular topic due to the cost effective, safe and current practice it provides. There are benefits to EBP, but also barriers to implementation by the nurse at the bedside. These barriers prevent utilization of the Evidence Based Practice education received and true behavior change. Foreground: The hospital used for this project is a top tier, large, academic, magnet hospital that is located with a 13 hospital organization. The administration has been discussing and educating employees on EBP for several years, but has not witnessed nurses translating that into bedside practice. Methods: A qualitative, focus group design was used to identify whether nursing behavior changed at the bedside after completing an EBP educational intervention, Evidence Equals Excellent (EEE). The EEE graduates were used to form consistancy in educational background relating to EBP and place of employment. EBP Framework: Two theories are intertwined to describe, organize, and create a theoretical foundation for this project. The first is a model by Rosswurm and Larrabee, which encompasses a systematic approach to implement EBP. The last stage within the model relates to maintaining EBP, this project will determine if ths hospital is maintaining EBP after educational intervention. The second is a change theory, Change Curve Model, to address whether fruition and true behavior changed occured. Finding/Results: Descriptive data was compiled using the demographic findings. Although nurses were recruited, only management personnel participated, no staff nurses. Behavior change was identified as well as several key barriers to change. Barriers such as lack of direct management support, no “buy in” from unengaged staff nurses, resistance and the large size of the organization. Conclusion/Recommendations: The data obtained by this project will aid the hospital administration to further facilitate behavior change as well as provide perceived barriers to address. The recommendations are to disseminate the information not only to appropriate individuals at the hospital and corporate level to facilitate EBP usage at the hospital, but to all caregivers at the bedside.
