Promoting evidence-based practice in nursing education: the good behavior game as a pedagogical tool for student engagement

Background Recent calls to face the shortage in nursing emphasized the importance of promoting evidence-based practice education. Despite the acknowledged importance, integrating EBP into nursing education presents challenges. The evidence showed that nurses lack previous experience applying EBP. Thus, the goal of this study was to investigate the efficacy of implementing the Good Behavior Game as a pedagogical intervention to enhance evidence-based practice use skills among nursing students. Methods A quasi-experimental pretest and post-test research design was employed at a major public university. The study used a sample of 115 Nursing students enrolled in a nursing research course to achieve the study goal. Findings The results showed that the GBG group significantly improved EBP use skills, outperforming the traditional teaching approach group. Both groups showed significant improvement in their EBP use skills. The GBG group scored higher by 0.6 points out of 5 in post-test scores, indicating a notable enhancement in their abilities compared to the traditional teaching approach group. Conclusion The competitive and collaborative nature of the GBG teaching approach addresses the challenges associated with traditional teaching methods, offering an effective alternative for promoting EBP skills.