Teaching of Evidence-Based Practice in Undergraduate Nursing Education: A Scoping Review

Background/Objectives: Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a core competency in undergraduate nursing education, yet how it is taught remains poorly mapped. This scoping review aimed to synthesise the evidence on curricular integration, pedagogy, learning resources, assessment, and outcomes of EBP teaching in undergraduate nursing programmes. Methods: This review followed JBI methodology and PRISMA-ScR reporting guidelines; the protocol was registered on the Open Science Framework (No. d3jsq). Eligible sources addressed undergraduate nursing students in higher education, regardless of study design, language, or publication date. PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched on 1 March 2026, complemented by grey literature and reference-list screening; extraction was conducted independently by two reviewers and complemented by the AI tool Elicit. Methodological quality was appraised using JBI checklists without influencing study selection, and findings were synthesised narratively into five thematic axes. Results: Fifty-five sources (47 primary sources and 8 evidence syntheses), mostly published from 2015 onwards and originating chiefly from North America and Europe, met the inclusion criteria. EBP was most often delivered as a standalone course or embedded within research-methods or clinical-placement courses, with the reported teaching most often delivered late in the curriculum and rarely underpinned by a theoretical framework. Active strategies were widely reported but generally supplemented, rather than replaced, didactic teaching, with learning resources centred on bibliographic databases, followed by librarian support and digital tools. Assessment and outcomes relied predominantly on validated self-report instruments, with performance-based measures used considerably less often. Of the 34 appraised studies, most were rated low–moderate to moderate in quality, and heavy reliance on self-report measures together with a North American/European concentration of sources limits the certainty and generalisability of these findings. Conclusions: The mapped evidence suggests that EBP teaching has diversified without a matching theoretical grounding or assessment capable of verifying its translation into practice, pointing to the potential value of progressive curricular sequencing, explicit alignment between pedagogical choices and competencies, and assessment capturing demonstrated rather than self-reported reasoning. This review received no external funding.