Managing to implement evidence-based practice? an exploration and explanation of the roles of nurse managers in evidence-based practice implementation

Abstract

Nurses face ongoing difficulties in using evidence and making a reality of evidence-based practice. Studies of the factors that facilitate or impede evidence-based practice suggest that nurse managers should have a key role, but the nature of this role has not yet been fully articulated. This study aimed to explore and explain the roles of nurse managers in relation to evidence-based practice implementation. Four case studies in Scottish NHS Acute Trusts provide rich data on evidence-based practice implementation, drawing on interviews (n = 51), observation and documentary analysis.

A wide literature on evidence use in nursing suggests that implementation is hindered by confusion and debate about what counts as evidence, and by an incomplete understanding by staff of the complexity of implementation processes. This study confirms such conclusions. Moreover, the study reveals that the roles of nurse managers in facilitating evidence use are currently limited, largely passive and under-articulated. As such, the findings expose significant discrepancies between nurse managers' roles in practice and those espoused in much of the literature. Partial explanation for this can be found in the organisational contexts in which nurses and their managers work (e.g. competing demands; confused communication; diffuse and overloaded roles and limits to authority and autonomy). In particular, the role of the contemporary nurse manager is one that places considerable emphasis on aspects of general management to the detriment of clinical practice issues.

More positively, the study uncovered genuine facilitation in two study sites where hybrid roles of nurse manager and clinical nurse specialist were in place. In both sites, these roles had been successful in supporting and progressing implementation in discrete areas of practice and show some potential for advancing evidence-based practice more widely. These findings have significant implications for research, policy and practice in relation to evidence-based practice in nursing.