Nurses’ Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes, and Barriers to Evidence-based Practice in Sudan: A Cross-sectional Study

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is crucial to improving patient outcomes and providing high-quality healthcare.

This study aimed to investigate nurses’ knowledge, skills, attitudes, and barriers to EBP in Sudanese hospitals.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in four Sudanese hospitals, with a total of 373 nurses recruited via convenience sampling. Data were collected using the Nursing Evidence-Based Practice Survey, and the data were analyzed using SPSS (version 28).

Of the 373 nurses who participated in this study, 265 (71.0%) were female, 26.8% were aged between 20 and 30 years, 54.4% held a bachelor’s degree, 53.1% worked in a government hospital, 28.7% had 1 to 5 years of clinical experience, 35.1% worked in an emergency department, and 83.6% lacked EBP training. Most nurses had poor knowledge, skills (53.9%), and attitudes (57.9%) regarding EBP. Male nurses had a higher perception of the unit culture (M = 210.42, p = .007), nurses between 31 and 40 years old had a significantly higher perception of the organizational culture (M = 230.77, p = .001), and those working in the general ward had a higher perception of the organizational culture (M = 212.56, p = .009). A significant but weak positive correlation (r = .349, p = .000) was observed between knowledge, skills, and attitude.

The findings highlighted nurses’ low levels of knowledge, skills, attitude, and barriers to EBP in Sudanese hospitals. Health policymakers and nursing managers can use these insights to design continuous education programs for enhancing knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) toward EBP in Sudan.