Objective To explore the characteristics of articles related to Evidence-based Nursing (EBN) and to identify the problems and difficulties encountered by clinical nurses when they were engaged in evidence-based practice in China.Methods We searched for articles published in 6 nursing journals in China from 2000 to early 2006, and classified, investigated and analyzed the retrieved articles. Results Research on EBN has been changing from explaining theories and methods to applying research results in nursing practice. Among articles on clinical application, 90.9% did not describe the methods and search strategy used; 63.6% did not specify the sources of the evidence applied in practice; 93.9% did not describe the methodological quality of the evidence; only 6.1% used the results of systematic reviews or randomized trials to guide clinical practice; and 72.7% did not use effective evaluation methods to identify the nursing outcomes after applying evidences in clinical practice. Conclusions The quality of EBN related articles needs to improve further. Nurses should learn more about the knowledge and skills associated with EBN so as to improve the quality of nursing practice and of academic articles on EBN
