• Hannele Saunders, Lynn Gallagher-Ford, Tarja Kvist, and Katri Vehviläinen-Julkunen.
• Department of Nursing Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland.
• Worldviews Evid Based Nurs. 2019 Jun 1; 16 (3): 176-185.

BackgroundEvidence-based practice (EBP) competencies are essential for all practicing healthcare professionals to provide evidence-based, quality care, and improved patient outcomes. The multistep EBP implementation process requires multifaceted competencies to successfully integrate best evidence into daily healthcare delivery.AimsTo summarize and synthesize the current research literature on practicing health professionals' EBP competencies (i.e., their knowledge, skills, attitudes, beliefs, and implementation) related to employing EBP in clinical decision-making.DesignAn overview of systematic reviews.MethodsPubMed/MEDLINE, CINAHL, Scopus, and Cochrane Library were systematically searched on practicing healthcare professionals' EBP competencies published in January 2012-July 2017. A total of 3,947 publications were retrieved, of which 11 systematic reviews were eligible for a critical appraisal of methodological quality. Three independent reviewers conducted the critical appraisal using the Rapid Critical Appraisal tools developed by the Helene Fuld National Institute for Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing & Healthcare.ResultsPracticing healthcare professionals' self-reported EBP knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs were at a moderate to high level, but they did not translate into EBP implementation. Considerable overlap existed in the source studies across the included reviews. Few reviews reported any impact of EBP competencies on changes in care processes or patient outcomes. Most reviews were methodologically of moderate quality. Significant variation in study designs, settings, interventions, and outcome measures in the source studies precluded any comparisons of EBP competencies across healthcare disciplines.Linking Evidence To ActionAs EBP is a shared competency, the development, adoption, and use of an EBP competency set for all healthcare professionals are a priority along with using actual (i.e., performance-based), validated outcome measures. The widespread misconceptions and misunderstandings that still exist among large proportions of practicing healthcare professionals about the basic concepts of EBP should urgently be addressed to increase engagement in EBP implementation and attain improved care quality and patient outcomes.© 2019 Sigma Theta Tau International.

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