9 Creating a Supportive EBP Environment 189healthcare. For this to happen, the report urges schools of nursing to ensure that
nurses achieve competency in leadership, health policy, systems improvement,
teamwork and collaboration, and research and EBP.
The American Nurses Association (ANA) revised Nursing: Scope and Standards
for Practice in 2010, making a substantive change to the “Research” standard by
renaming it “Evidence-Based Practice and Research.” The new standard of pro-
fessional performance requires that the “registered nurse integrates evidence and
research findings into practice” (p. 51). The competencies are quite specific and
hold registered nurses accountable to:
■■ Utilize current evidence-based nursing knowledge, including research
findings, to guide practice
■■ Incorporate evidence when initiating changes in nursing practice
■■ Participate, as appropriate to education level and position, in the formu-
lation of EBP through research
■■ Share personal or third-party research findings with colleagues and peers
(ANA, 2010).Other substantive changes throughout the standards emphasize the imperative
for evidence in nursing practice and create a significantly stronger role for nurses
to promote an EBP environment and advocate for resources to support research
(ANA, 2010).
A new type of healthcare worker exists now—one educated to think critically
and not to simply accept the status quo. Nurses from Generation Y, whose mem-
bers are known as millennials, and Generation Z (http://www.socialmarketing.
org) question current nursing practices, and “We’ve always done it that way” is
no longer an acceptable response. They want evidence that what they are doing
in the workplace is efficient and effective. These nurses are pushing the profession
away from practice based on tradition and past practices that are unsupported
by evidence. This push requires that evidence support all clinical, educational,
and administrative decision-making.