Nivel de Competencia en práctica basada en la evidencia en estudiantes de programas de enfermeria de Colombia

Introduction. Evidence-based practice in nursing seeks to strengthen decision-making, decrease practice variability, and improve patient outcomes. Objective. To determine the level of competence in evidence-based practice among nursing students in Colombian programs. Methodology. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with 1,021 final-year students from 19 nursing programs in Colombia. The Evidence-Based Practice Competency Questionnaire (CACH-PBE) developed by María Ruzafa Martínez and colleagues was used to evaluate competencies in knowledge, attitudes, and skills in Evidence-Based Practice (EBP), and a sociodemographic and educational characterization of the participants was conducted. Results. Eighty-three percent of the participants were women, and 65.3% had no previous training in EBP. The mean global competency score in evidence-based practice was 3.81. The highest score was in the attitude domain, with a mean of 4.1. The skill and knowledge domains reported a mean of 3.66 and 3.34, respectively. Discussion. In general, the studies that have addressed this topic show that nursing program students achieve an intermediate level of competencies in using EBP and that training directed explicitly towards this methodology favors the achievement of competencies for its use in professional practice. Conclusions. Students have a high level of attitude and an intermediate level of skills and knowledge for using EBP.