Four factor Research Awareness Scale for Nurses in Japanese: Instrument development study

Abstract

Research awareness is an important consideration necessary for providing superior nursing care. However, a gap exists between research and clinical practice. A major obstacle to integrating research into clinical practice is the absence of research awareness among nurses. Studies on research awareness have focused primarily on three factors: attitude, competence, and encouragement for conducting research. The Research Awareness Scale for Nurses (RASN) in Japanese incorporates a critical, yet generally overlooked fourth factor of flexible structure for research. The aim of this study was to develop a nursing research awareness scale that could be used to determine the reasons for the lack of interest in research among nurses and to help nursing administrators take steps to integrate research into clinical practice. The RASN was developed and tested in three stages. An item pool for the scale was generated from a published work review and focus group interviews. The scale was then tested in a pilot study, and finally in a main study. Reliability and validity were examined by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha, one-way anova and correlation analysis. The RASN exhibited good validity in the four factor structure ("attitude", "competence", "encouragement", and "flexible structure"). Cronbach's alpha exhibited good internal consistency. The RASN was significantly and positively correlated with research-related education and activities. The RASN had good internal consistency, content validity, discriminant validity, and construct validity. These findings demonstrate that the RASN is a useful instrument for evaluating approaches toward the integration of research into clinical practice.