Identifying barriers to the application of evidence based practice in mental health nursing

Abstract

Although contemporary nursing literature urges clinicians to embrace the principles of evidence-based practice and utilise research to guide professional activity, this challenge has frequently gone unheeded by mental health nurses. Indeed the reality of merging research and practice is a complex process impeded by significant barriers. Examination of these barriers provides credible reason for mental health nurses’ slow progress toward evidence-based nursing practice to date. However, exploration of these barriers also leads to the identification of strategies to overcome them, inevitably rendering the current situation untenable.

Key Words:

• evidence based practice
• mental health
• nursing