Background: Evidence-based practice (EBP) is the appropriate approach to guide healthcare personnel in their clinical practice. Despite the importance of EBP, undergraduate nursing students are not very much engaged and have a lack of knowledge and skills. Aim: The aim of this study was to gather, assess and synthesize evidence on educational interventions promoting evidence-based practice competencies in traditional undergraduate nursing students. Methods: This is a scoping review on sixteen English and non-English databases. A data extraction form was established including authors, year of publication, country, types of participant, specific objectives, study design, educational intervention, comparison if existed, and outcomes of significance. Results: The search strategy retrieved 8901 records in total. After screening for duplicates and eligibility, 20 articles were included in the qualitative synthesis. Improvement in EBP domains such as knowledge, skills, attitudes/behaviours, EBP beliefs, use, practice, level of evidence, critical thinking and future use of EBP were mentioned and assessed in different studies. Conclusions: EBP training can improve nursing students’ capacity in healthcare provision. Teaching EBP competencies along undergraduate nursing curricula should be a high priority at nursing programmes. The use of innovative approaches seems to be more effective than traditional ways. Education of EBP increases its future use and critical thinking and EBP programs improve self-efficacy and the level of evidence utilization.

Teaching evidence-based practice (EBP) in nursing education varies among nurse educators and universities. Lack of nurses' knowledge and skills are among the barriers commonly associated with the limited use of EBP in practice. To describe the presence, characteristics and content of courses of EBP in nursing bachelor's, master's, and PhD programs in six European countries. A descriptive study design was employed. The study was implemented as part of the EBP e-Toolkit Project as a strategic partnership of six European higher education institutions from six countries in the framework of the Erasmus+ Programme. Census sampling (N = 225) was used. A total of 162 (72%) faculties responded from the following countries: Spain (79), Italy (44), the Czech Republic (15), Poland (12), Greece (7), and Slovenia (5). Three structured instruments were developed by using the consensus development panel. The research was conducted from December 2018 to March 2019. For names of subjects, a manual narrative Template Analysis was used with open descriptive coding. Subjects in "EBP in Nursing or Health Care" are included in 45 (29.2%) bachelor's programs, mostly worth 180 European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits, 30 (28%) master's, and 6 (40%) PhD programs. In bachelor's programs, an average of 134 h are spent teaching EBP steps, followed by 127 h in master's programs and 52 h in PhD programs. EBP subjects have different focuses: clear topics in EBP, development of research knowledge, awareness of the need for evidence-based clinical work, and understanding the needs of the profession. Teaching EBP is not yet sufficiently integrated into nursing curricula. For more efficient integration, guidelines on the standardization of teaching approaches and content have to be developed in all three cycles of higher education. Further research is needed on the implementation of teaching at master's and PhD levels of nursing curricula.

Background: Consensus on evidence‐based practice (EBP) competencies and associated learning outcomes for registered nurses has not yet been achieved in the European context.Aims: To establish a set of core EBP competencies for nurses and the most important EBP learning outcomes encompassing attitudes, knowledge, and skills dimensions for implementation into nursing education in European countries.Methods: A multi‐phase modified Delphi survey was conducted: Phase 1, a literature review; Phase 2, a two‐round consensus of experts; and Phase 3, a Delphi survey. Experts from six European countries participated.Results: In Phase 1, 88 records were selected and 835 statements extracted, which were grouped according to the seven steps of EBP. After removing 157 duplicates, the remaining competencies (n = 678) were evaluated in Phase 2. Then, a two‐round expert consensus was reached, with 24 competencies and 120 learning outcomes identified and divided into affective, cognitive, and skills domains. In Phase 3, based on a Delphi survey expert consensus, all evaluated statements were included in a final set of competencies and learning outcomes. Only two learning outcomes were recommended for allocation to a different domain, and four were reformulated as suggested, with no further changes to the others.Linking Evidence to Action: The set of EBP competencies and learning outcomes can guide nurse educators, managers, and EBP stakeholders in the development of content that incorporates EBP knowledge, skills, and attitudes into educational programs. Prioritizing the EBP competencies and learning outcomes that are most necessary and adapting them to every context will provide healthcare organizations with guidelines for enhancing the continuing education of nurses. These results could facilitate the development of effective tools for assessing nursing students’ and nurses’ perception of competencies required for EBP processes.

Background: Levels of fear have increased since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. The absence of a safe and effective vaccine for mass-vaccination deteriorates this situation, which has a significant impact on mental health. This study aimed to assess the feelings of fear among nurses and nursing students in five European countries. Methods: A multicenter cross-sectional study was conducted in five European countries (Greece, Albania, Cyprus, Spain, and Kosovo) before the start of mass vaccination in Europe. Data collection was conducted in December 2020–January 2021 using an online questionnaire for nursing students and professional nurses. Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) was used for measuring levels of fear. IBM SPSS version 21.0 was used for statistical analysis. Results: The study population included 1135 nurses and 1920 nursing students from Kosovo (n = 1085), Spain (n = 663), Greece (n = 534), Albania (n = 529), and Cyprus (n = 244). According to multivariable analysis, females (OR = 2.53, 95% CI = 1.89–3.15), married (OR = 0.86, 95% CI = 0.24–1.48), nurses (OR = 0.87, 95% CI = 0.28–1.45) and those with a chronic disease (OR = 0.86, 95% CI = 0.11–1.62) were more fearful of COVID-19. Conclusions: It is important to decrease fear in the population of nurses who are at the frontlines of the pandemic. The provision of appropriate education and training activities for nurses and students to manage their stress levels is of high importance. Future studies should focus on levels of fear after the administration of several safe and effective vaccines worldwide.

Background: The increase in the ageing population and the consequent establishment of a network of adequate structures to respond effectively to the welfare needs of institutionalized elderly people have stimulated the discussion by healthcare professionals on the subject of oral hygiene. Literature data show that the same attention has not been paid to oral health care compared to other health needs. Many studies have demonstrated that oral health has a significant impact on the quality of life, especially for older people. Poor oral health also has a considerable role on the physical condition of the elderly because it affects their ability to eat, feed themselves, forcing them to have unbalanced diets. The consequence of this condition is dehydration, malnutrition and impairment of communication skills. The essential nursing activity for oral care is the assessment of the state of oral health, an activity that should be conducted by means of valid tools. To date there are no tools for assessing the health of the oral cavity validated for the Italian linguistic-cultural context. The aim of this study is to conduct a linguistic-cultural validation for the Italian context, of the original Australian version of the Oral Health Assessment Tool (OHAT) scale. Methods: Study design: Linguistic-cultural validation and adaptation of a tool for the assessment of oral health. The Beaton and Sousa & Rojjanasrirat (2011) models were used to conduct the linguistic-cultural validation and adaptation process. This validation involved 368 inmates/patients aged over 65 years with cognitive deficit. Results: The face validity was confirmed by a score for each item related to clarity equal to or greater than 80%. The content validity was confirmed by an content validity index for items (I-CVI) score equal to or greater than 0.8 for each item and an content validity index for scales (S-CVI) of 0.93 for the entire tool. For the reliability of the internal consistency the Cronbach alpha was calculated, which was found to be 0.82. The test-retest was calculated by means of the Pearson coefficient correlation which turned out to be 0.5. Conclusions: The Italian version of the OHAT is a tool that can help to consider oral health at the same level as other health needs aimed at increasing the quality of nursing care provided. This tool can be used by nurses to assess the health of the oral cavity in elderly subjects also with cognitive deficit.