Introduction: evidence-based practice (EBP) is too scarcely applied in nursing and is a key contemporary challenge for the discipline. Method and objective: This descriptive and correlational study involved 221 nurses working in three different clinical settings in university hospitals in Switzerland. The objective of this study was to describe their level of knowledge, beliefs, and implementation of EBP. Results: of the 221 nurses in this study, only 67 were familiar with EBP (30%). These demonstrate favorable beliefs and attitudes toward EBP but indicate a lack of skills and knowledge in implementing it. Compared to both internal medicine and geriatric nurses, clinical nurse specialists (CNS) were significantly more familiar with EBP and its implementation. Results also indicate that nurses’ positive beliefs and attitudes toward EBP are predictive of better implementation in clinical practice. Discussion and conclusion: as demonstrated in other studies, our results show that knowledge about EBP is not that widespread and its implementation remains a challenge even in university hospitals. Future work could include testing EBP implementation strategies to overcome the barriers identified.