Evidence-Based Practice: Knowledge, Attitude, Practice and Perceived Barriers to Practice among Nurses in Oman

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to describe nurses’ practices, attitudes, knowledge/skills and perceived barriers in relation to evidence-based practice (EBP) in Oman. METHODS: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted between February and November 2012. A self-reported 24-item questionnaire was used to measure EBP practices, attitudes and knowledge/skills among a convenience sample of 600 nurses working in four governmental hospitals in Muscat, Oman. Responses were scored on a one to seven rating scale. Barriers to EBP were measured on a five-point Likert scale using two subscales. Descriptive statistics and general linear regression were used to analyse the data. RESULTS: A total of 414 nurses were included in the study. The greatest barriers to developing EBP among nurses were insufficient time for research (3.51 ± 0.97) and insufficient resources to change practices (3.64 ± 0.99). Nurses with more years of experience reported increased use of EBP (P <0.01), more positive attitudes towards EBP (P <0.001) and fewer barriers to research (P <0.01). Significant positive correlations were found between years of experience and practice (r = 0.16) and attitudes (r = 0.20). Nurses with a baccalaureate degree reported fewer barriers to research than those qualified at a diploma level (P <0.001). Nurses who perceived more barriers to research reported less use of EBP (P <0.001), less positive attitudes towards EBP (P <0.001) and limited EBP knowledge/skills (P <0.001). CONCLUSION: These findings provide a basis for enhancing nursing practices, knowledge and skills. Continuing education for nurses and minimising barriers is crucial to increasing the use of EBP in Oma

Advancement of a Long Arithmetic Technology in the Construction of Algorithms for Studying Linear Systems

We have advanced the application of algorithms within a method of basic matrices, which are equipped with the technology of long arithmetic to improve the precision of performing the basic operations in the course of studying the ill-conditioned linear systems, specifically, the systems of linear algebraic equations (SLAE). Identification of the fact of ill-conditionality of a system is a rather time-consuming computational procedure. The possibility to control computations entering the state of incorrectness and the impossibility of accumulating calculation errors, which is a desirable property of the methods and algorithms for solving practical problems, were introduced.Modern computers typically use the standard types of integers whose size does not exceed 64 bytes. This hardware limitation was resolved using software, specifically, by developing a proprietary type of data in the form of a special Longnum library in the C++ language (using the STL (Standard Template Library)). Software implementation was aimed at carrying out computations for methods of basic matrices (MBM) and Gauss matrices, that is, long arithmetic for models with rational elements was used. We have proposed the algorithms and computer realization of the Gauss type methods and methods of artificial basic matrices (a variant of the method of basic matrices) in MatLAB environment and Visual C++ environment using precise computation of the methods' elements, first of all, for the ill-conditioned systems of varying dimensionality. The Longnum library with the types of long integers (longint3) and rational numbers (longrat3) with the numerator and denominator of the longint3 type was developed. Arithmetic operations on long integers were performed based on the modern methods, including the Strassen multiplication method. We give the results from the computational experiment employing the mentioned methods, in which test models of the systems were generated, specifically, based on the Gilbert matrices of different dimensionalit