Midwives’ Perceptions of Barriers to Implementing Evidence-Based Practice in Northern Jordan

Introduction Through evidence-based practice (EBP) implementation, midwives are critical in maternal care. However, there remain unrecognised barriers that they frequently experienced. Such barriers within Jordan perspective include insufficient managerial support, excessive workloads and limited resources. Objective To gain an in-depth understanding and facilitate the implementation of maternity care improvements, this study examines the perspectives of midwives concerning the barriers to implementing EBP in northern Jordan. Methods This study adopted a cross-sectional, descriptive design with the BARRIERS scale to investigate the barriers during the implementation process including adopter, communication, organisation and innovation. 191 midwives participated with the scale, all works from the gynaecology and obstetrics departments within seven government and university hospitals in Northern Jordan. Analyses were performed upon the data including descriptive statistics, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and linear regression. Results Midwives perceptions indicated that the top three barriers to the implementation of EBP are innovation, organisation and communication. The regression analysis revealed a negative correlation between perceived barriers and education level (F (2, 188) = 8.657, p < 0.001). However, there were no correlation between age and work experience. Conclusion The midwives revealed that the major obstacles to EBP utilisation are organisational factors. The key facilitator is proper support from the management. Therefore, the recommendation from this study is the implementation of robust strategies that reduces organisational barriers, strengthen staff training, managerial and police support as well as active engagement with leadership. Despite the focus of this research is Jordan, the findings may not be specific to this region. As such, it is possible to assume that the recommendations can be applied to maternity care within healthcare contexts that have similar organisational attributes and challenges. However, cautious interpretation of the findings must be made due to the geographical limitations and reliance upon self-reported data within this study.