A descriptive survey was designed among final year BSc Nursing tutee at various nursing colleges of central Gujarat, India from January 2020 to December 2020. Ethical clearance along with permission to conduct the study was obtained from Institutional Ethical Committee (IEC) letter no.-CHA/ADMIN/NUR/19/04/156.

Inclusion criteria: Tutee studying in fourth year BSc Nursing who were available at the time of data collection and were willing to participate in study by providing their informed consent for data collection were included in the study.

Exclusion criteria: Tutee who had not come across term PRE in their nursing studies were excluded from the study.

Sample size calculation: A purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample. Power estimation was done to find approximate sample size using literature review and formula as advised by statistician (4pq/n²). The reason was relying in curriculum of final year BSc nursing tutee who study the concept partially as a part of their final year BSc (N) curriculum and it was an assumption of researcher that these tutees will have some awareness about the concept. A total 120 tutee from four nursing institutions participated in study.

Researcher had previous experience of teaching PRE to nursing tutee. Based on skills acquired researcher explored many text books and University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics [2], was contacted for their Dissemination of Nursing Knowledge: Tips and Resources and EBP in Action tools. Researcher had formally acquired permission from them to utilise the said tool for study [3]. Researcher procured information from various resources and generated self-developed tool for study, which was then sent for validation and reliability of research tool was established after a pilot study. The reliability score of study was r=0.8. After receiving detailed validation of tool, researcher finally designed research tool used for present study. The study tool was broadly framed under following headings:

The study tool was made in English language. The mean awareness scores were calculated by calculating mean of scored under awareness scores response section.

Inferential and descriptive analysis of results was done to analyse study results. Chi-square test was applied to find association of awareness and perspective with demographic characteristics of tutee. Data analysis was done under guidance of statistician and presented as required.

Among 120 participants, 15 (12.5%) were male and 105 (87.5%) were female, 99 (82.5%) of them had learned fundamentals of PRE and 21 (17.5%) were not able to recall it, 40 (33.33%) had previous training of PRE and 80 (66.67%) had not undergone any previous training of PRE.

The mean awareness score was 20.1 and SD was 2.911. The Chi-square value for gender was 0.126, learned fundamentals of evidence was 0.009 and any previous training specifically regarding PRE was 0.364. Majority of the variable had significant association with level of awareness except learned fundamentals of evidences (p= 0.000084).

[Table/Fig-1] depicts the awareness scores of study participants regarding various segments of tool. Out of 120 participants, 76.67% have good whereas 23.33% had average awareness of PRE, 89.17% are good where as 10.83% have average use of evidence resources in nursing, 2.5% (3) have good, 90% (108) had average and and 7.5% (9) have poor scores regarding utilisation of PRE.

The mean score for use of evidence resources was 28.24 and SD was 2.95 and was found non significant in association with demographic variables. None of the variables showed statistically significant association with perspectives of tutee on PRE [Table/Fig-2]. A statistically weak positive correlation (p=0.046) was found between awareness and perspective score [Table/Fig-3].

The mean score for utilisation status for PRE was 6.15 whereas SD was 1.47, mean perspective score was 107.94 and SD was 10.93. PRE is emerging as one of the fastest growing field in health care. Results of study revealed following outcome.

Research based proofed resources are serving as backbone of today’s healthcare services. It is the integration of clinical skill and the available research evidence to make a decision for patient care [4]. As it was seen in present study that there was a positive weak correlation between awareness and perspective scores regarding evidence relying methods among aspirants of nursing. A pool of nursing tutee expressed non certainty in any component of study, hence critical relationship between awareness and perspective scores were found. For present study EBP in Action tools was adopted and enriched with self-developed questionnaire to form final research tool.

As per results analysis it is observed that Cochrane and high-level evidences are referred occasionally or at minimal instance which indicates there is a lack of evidence reference priority skills among samples and lower level of resources as per evidence hierarchy is preferred more due to it’s easy accessibility. It is observed as many of them are aware about PRE but do not show an approach to apply in their practice. Present study recommends to include PRE in academic curriculum as an integral part in all nursing education courses.

Belowska J et al., conducted a study to analyse the knowledge and attitude of nursing tutee towards evidence based medicine and evidence based nursing Practice at Medical University of Warsaw and concluded that nursing education programme should include evidence-based medicine and nursing practice in curriculum to facilitate their knowledge and let them reap the benefits of using latest research proofs in exercising nursing. They also found that knowledge level of participants was strongly insufficient. Researcher recommended that improving PRE skills and literacy is essential to uplift practice [5].

Azmoude E et al., conducted a study to reveal knowledge, practice and self-efficiency in EBP at Eastern Iran. The study results demonstrated consistency with present study results and concluded that there is a need for improvement in the self-efficacy, practice and knowledge of EBP [6].

Zhou F et al., conducted a multiple institutional cross-sectional survey in China to explore nurse’s knowledge, attitude and practice on EBP. Study results had shown positive response of participants which comprised of positive attitude towards PRE, which was in coherence with present study results indicating weak but positive correlation among awareness and perspectives of tutees [7].

The present study was limited to students of final year BSc (N) studying at nursing colleges of central Gujarat, India. The study was limited to student’s assessable during data collection via online mode.

The study results concluded that samples have scope for improvement of PRE perception awareness for better nursing care. It is observed that some aspects like utilisation skills status about PRE application are explicitly lacking and needs to be improved by the means of curriculum strengthening and frequent refresher training. Based on above discussion researcher believes that PRE should be adopted in nursing curriculum for ensuring nourishment of upcoming nurses with these skills since the inception of their training, tutees must be sensitised for concepts of PRE and it’s clinical application, use of PRE in nursing care planning, education and decision making should be encouraged and prescribed by authorities to inculcate culture of PRE in students. Present study also advocates to promote institutional skill attainment programmes for promoting PRE.

A further study can be done among Undergraduate (UG) or Postgraduate (PG) nursing students, faculties teaching at various nursing students or among the nurse’s working at health care facilities. These studies can be done for assessment of PRE practice among nurse’s in clinical setting as base research to develop PRE operational SOP’s and guidelines for clinical practice.