Evidence-based practice competencies of nursing students

It is to assess the knowledge-skills-behaviors of nursing students about evidence based practices. The universe of the research was Gaziantep University, Faculty of Health Sciences, 747 students who learning in the nursing department and 435 students who agreed to participate in the study. Descriptive features and evidence based practice scale were used in data collections. The score distributions are knowledge and skill subscale; 6-30, behavior subscale; 13-65, and the total is between 25 and 125. High scores indicate that the evidence-based practice competencies of the students are high. The data were evaluated using SPSS 22.0.The point mean score of knowledge subscale was 18.6±2.9, skill subscale was 19.1±2.9, behavior subscale was 46.9±6.7, total was 84.7±9.1. When descriptive features and evidence-based practice scale total score are compared, it was found higher that the knowledge subscale averages of the students of 21-22 years of age (19.2±2.6), those students at 4th grade (19.3±2.5), whose mother graduated from an university (19.5±2.4), family income is greater than expenses (19.7±3.3) and who graduated from vocational high school (20.2±2.4); skill subscale averages of those students in 2th grade (19.6±3.1); behavioral subscale averages of women (47.5±6.6), the bachelors (47.0±6.6), those students in 2th grade (48.5±5.9), those find the job appropriate for their interest (47.9±6.9); total scale averages of women (85.4±9.3), the bachelors(84.9±9.0), those students in 2th grade(86.9±8.5), those find the nursing profession suitable for their interests (86.2±9.8)(p<0.05). There is positive correlation between skill-behavior and knowledge-behavior subscale (p<0.001). As a result, in our study knowledge, skill and behaviour subscale, and total point average of evidence-based application scale were found high among nursing students. Key words: Evidence, evidence-based practice, nursing