Organizational culture and readiness for evidence-based practice in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: A pre-experimental study

Abstract

Aim: This study aims to establish postgraduate students' perceptions of the organizational culture and readiness for evidence-based practice of their workplaces in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Background: Nurse shortages and a reliance on a transient nurse workforce have long been a challenge in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Developing a home-grown nurse workforce, a key objective of the Government of Saudi Arabia, can help to address this. Evidence-based practice offers a mechanism to address this. Evidence-based practice implementation is heavily reliant on the prevailing organizational culture. Establishing the organizational culture and readiness for evidence-based practice is crucial for sustainable evidence-based practice implementation.

Methods: A pre-experimental pilot study collected data from the same participants at three different points. As part of this, a questionnaire measuring organizational culture and readiness for evidence-based practice was administered twice. Descriptive, inferential and correlational statistics were employed to analyse the data.

Results: Results demonstrated improved participant perceptions of the organizational culture and readiness for evidence-based practice of their workplaces between the first (M = 76.58, SD = 19.2) and second (M = 92.10, SD = 23.68) data collection points, indicating moderate movement towards a culture of evidence-based practice. Strengths, challenges and opportunities for improvement were identified.

Conclusion: This study established participants' perceptions of the organizational culture and readiness for evidence-based practice of their workplaces, affording insight into context-specific strategies to embed evidence-based practice in health care organizations.

Implications for nursing management: Assessing an organization's culture and readiness for evidence-based practice (EBP) can afford insight on the strengths, challenges and opportunities that exist to equip nurse managers to advance evidence-based practice at individual, professional and organizational levels. This study demonstrated the importance of promoting an environment conducive to EBP and putting in place the necessary resources to support evidence-based practice implementation. Nurse managers can play a central role in this.

Keywords: Saudi Arabia; evidence-based practice; nurse leaders; nurse workforce; organizational culture and readiness for EBP.