Investigation of the relationship between intensive care nurses' attitudes to academic literacy and evidence-based practices

The study was carried out in a descriptive-correlational design to examine the relationship between academic literacy and attitudes towards evidence-based practices of intensive care nurses. The population of the study consisted of intensive care nurses working in a training and research hospital and the sample consisted of nurses who accepted to participate in the study (N=375). The data of the study were collected by face-to-face or online interviews using the "Nurse Information Form", "Academic Literacy Scale (ALS)" and "Evidence-Based Nursing Attitude Questionnaire (EBNAQ)". The obtained data were analysed with statistical analyses in SPSS 23.0 package programme. The mean age of the nurses participating in the study was 29.19±5.41 years; 65.8% were female, 47.2% were Anatolian/Science high school graduates, and 87.3% were licence (bachelor's) graduates. The duration of working in the profession was 6.57±5.70 years, in intensive care unit was 4.46±4.25 years, and in the institution was 4.97±4.38 years. Of the nurses, 54.0% follow professional scientific journal publications, 69.2% participate in scientific activities related to nursing and 13.3% are members of professional associations. The Academic Literacy Scale Score was 78.58±17.68 (high level) and the Attitude Towards Evidence-Based Nursing Scale Score was 59.21±10.01 (high level) and a low positive correlation was found between them. It was found that female gender, postgraduate education level, knowing and applying the concept of EBN were among the individual and professional characteristics that made a positive difference on academic literacy and attitude towards evidence-based nursing.