The Relationship between Nurses’ Attitudes towards Evidence-Based Nursing and Barriers to Research Utilization: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Abstract

Objective: This study was conducted to determine the relationship between nurses’ attitudes towards evidence-based nursing and barriers to the use of research. Methods: This study was a descriptive cross-sectional survey. The study carried out with 500 nurses working in a state hospital in Turkey. The data were collected with using a Nurse Descriptive Form, the Evidence‐Based Nursing Attitude Questionnaire and the Barriers to Research Utilization Scale. The analysis of data was used the independent sample t-test, ANOVA test, Kruskal Wallis analyses, post hoc test (Tamhane’s), Mann Whitney U-test, and Pearson’s product moment correlation. Results: The mean age of the nurses was 31.50 ± 7.57 years, 72.6% of them were female, and 54.4% had bachelor degree level education. The nurses’ Attitude Scale item total mean score was 3.58 ± 0.48. The belief subscale of this scale has the highest score with 3.80 ± 0.59. The nurses’ Barriers Scale item total mean was 2.65 ± 0.28. On this scale, the subscale with the highest score was setting, with 3.04 ± 0.47. Nurses’ between attitude and barriers scale item total mean was found a weak correlation (r = 0.199, p < .05). Conclusion: Nurses had highly positive attitudes towards evidence-based nursing. They had a medium level of barriers to the use of research. The nurses’ greatest barriers came from the subscale of setting. Even though nurses’ scores on attitudes towards evidence-based nursing were high, it was seen that there were barriers to the use of research. For this reason, a plan should be developed to increase nurses' knowledge and awareness of the research process that will increase compliance with future protocol practices, through the implementation of evidence-based nursing and identifying barriers to research use.