Turkish nurses' utilization of research evidence in clinical practice and influencing factors

Abstract

Implementing research evidence in clinical practice is a complicated process. Successful implementation requires an understanding of factors related to nurses' competency in different fields regarding research knowledge and skills, clinical practice, organizational and educational issues. To explore the factors that nurses believe are essential for research evidence to become the basis of their practice. A descriptive design was used in this study. With stratified sampling, a total of 219 nurses were recruited from 55 inpatient clinics of three hospitals in Turkey. The study data were collected by questionnaire consisting of non-numeric and open-ended questions in order to obtain the nurses' intact expressions regarding evidence-based nursing. Respondents who perceived conducting research as a part of their professional role (82) were more likely to implement research into practice than others (68) (P < 0.05). Furthermore, older and highly experienced nurses were more likely to implement evidence into practice (P < 0.05). There was a difference between research utilization and perceived support from organizations (P < 0.05). Nurses who knew the definition of evidence-based nursing (36; 53.6% always, and 19; 28.5% sometimes) were more likely to utilize research findings in practice than others (P < 0.05). The study emphasized the importance of nursing education and organizational support in order to accomplish the implementation of evidence-based nursing. The findings indicated that integrating all sources of evidence into practice, and appreciating the use of evidence in clinical practice are crucial in surmounting the challenge of achieving evidence-based practice.