Enhancing Information Literacy as a Base of Developing Evidence-Based Nursing

Abstract

Effective clinical care requires nurses to obtain the capability of putting the research findings into application. During the recent years, evidence-based nursing (EBN) has proved itself as a way for health care and therapy based on new findings being used in clinical care practices. However, studies show that nurses have problem in evidence-based practice application the most of which reveals itself in finding the best evidence, identifying proper resources, using the best search strategies, and evaluating documents and evidence. In fact, they lack enough competencies in acquiring information literacy. Information literacy means perceiving information organization, the ability of searching and finding the best results from various printed and electronic resources, selecting proper resources and evaluating them properly, and establishing connections with research results. Seeking assistance from medical librarians and information scientists -as developers of educational courses, educators or providers of information in the field- in educational process, helps to train clinical staff with information literacy and turn them into consumers of research articles. The aim of this article was to identify effective elements in evidence-based nursing and the role of information literacy in promotion of it. Also the article offers some information literacy patterns in improving evidence-based nursing used in the world which has been chosen with review method. Keywords: Literacy; Development; Nursing; Awareness; Information.