Sociodemographic characteristics.

Aim This study aims to describe the nursing competency, research knowledge and skills of nurses in Ghana regarding evidence-based practice. Methods This nationwide descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted among 480 clinical nurses and nurse educators from both private and public institutions. Nurses were included in the study if they had a full-time or part-time appointment, were in active service, and had a valid Personal Identification Number from the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana. The Mann-Whitney U-test was used to compare mean rank scores between two groups, and the Kruskal Wallis H-test was used for the comparison. Results Thirty percent of them rated their ability to formulate research questions, conduct literature search and retrieval, and critical analysis of scientific literature as fair or poor. Half of the nurses disagreed with changing to new methods, and more than half at least agreed with all the items measuring the use of evidence-based practice. One out of every 20 Nurses somewhat disagreed with formulating answerable research questions at work, and the same proportion disagreed or were neutral to integrating evidence into practice with their expertise. It was statistically significant that females (p-value = 0.001), married (p-value = 0.054), Christians (p-value<0.001), nurse educators (p-value<0.001) and part-time workers (p-value<0.001) were more likely to have higher mean scores on research knowledge and skills. The Kruskal Wallis test showed that research knowledge and skills (H = 97.281, p-value<0.001, df = 2), attitude towards evidence-based practice (H = 10.143, p-value = 0.006, df = 2), and nursing competencies (H = 9.041, p-value = 0.011, df = 2) differ for all the educational level of all nurses. Conclusion The self-reported competencies in the various aspects of the research process and knowledge generation by both clinicians and nurse educators were good; however, the overall composite score revealed that nurses only had fair knowledge and skills in this regard. Nurses should be given the requisite training to appraise and evaluate nursing research for incorporation into nursing practice.研究目的 本研究旨在描述加纳护士在循证实践（Evidence-Based Practice）方面的护理能力、研究知识与技能水平。 研究方法 本研究为全国性描述性横断面调查，共纳入来自公私医疗机构的480名临床护士与护理教育者。纳入标准为：持有加纳护理与助产士委员会（Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana）颁发的有效个人识别码，且为全职或兼职在岗护士。本研究采用曼-惠特尼U检验（Mann-Whitney U-test）比较两组的平均秩和得分，采用克拉斯卡尔-沃利斯H检验（Kruskal Wallis H-test）进行多组比较。 研究结果 30%的受访者认为自己在提出研究问题、开展文献检索与梳理、批判性分析科学文献的能力仅为一般或较差。半数护士反对改用新方法，而超过半数的护士至少认同循证实践相关测评条目。每20名护士中便有1人对工作中提出可解答的研究问题持一定反对态度，相同比例的护士对结合自身专业知识将证据融入临床实践持反对或中立态度。统计分析显示，女性（p值=0.001）、已婚人群（p值=0.054）、基督教信徒（p值<0.001）、护理教育者（p值<0.001）以及兼职工作者（p值<0.001）在研究知识与技能上获得更高平均得分的可能性显著更高。克拉斯卡尔-沃利斯检验结果表明，按学历分层后，护士的研究知识与技能（H=97.281，p值<0.001，自由度df=2）、循证实践态度（H=10.143，p值=0.006，df=2）以及护理能力（H=9.041，p值=0.011，df=2）均存在显著差异。 研究结论 临床护士与护理教育者自我报告的研究流程各环节能力及知识生成水平整体良好，但综合总分显示，护士在该领域的知识与技能仅处于一般水平。应为护士提供必要的培训，使其能够评估、评价护理研究成果并将其融入临床护理实践。