Does the workplace influence nurses' use of research?

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Mallidou, Anastasia A.
  • Scott, Shannon
  • Cummings, Greta

• Building on the work of Ehrenberg and Estabrooks, the authors continue the series of articles on knowledge utilization by focusing on the effect of organizational factors and leadership on research use by individual practitioners. Traditionally, the onus to integrate research findings into everyday practice has been placed on the individual practitioner. This tendency to blame the individual practitioner is consistent with the era of personal and professional responsibility. The research-practice gap is believed to exist because the knowledge and behaviors of individuals, including research skills and educational preparation, were inadequate. However, a recent systematic review of the research literature examining what determines individual's use of research revealed inconsistent results and found only one consistent individual determinant of research use: attitude toward research use. Also, many individual determinants are not easy to change (eg, age and gender). These results question the validity of conclusions and recommendations of many of the studies in this research area. Investigators are now beginning to suggest that the organization holds a more significant role in impeding or promoting the move to evidence-based practice and that organizational context is a potentially important factor in determining research use. However, the how and why organizational context is important are still unanswered questions. Consequently, there have been calls for further investigation into the role that organizational context plays in research use.

• Date created

  2004

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Diffusion of Innovation
  • Evidence-Based Medicine/organization & administration

• Type of Item

  Research Material

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3MC8RG14

• License

  © 2004 Greta Cummings, Anastasia A. Mallidou & Shannon Scott. This version of this article is open access and can be downloaded and shared. The original author(s) and source must be cited.