The Place of Knowledge and Evidence in the Context of Australian General Practice Nursing

Abstract

A B S T R A C TBackground: The purpose of the study was to ascertain the place of knowledge and evidence in the context of Australian general practice nursing. General practice nursing is a rapidly developing area of specialized nursing in Australia. The provision of primary care services in Australia rests largely with medical general practitioners who employ nurses in a small business model.Methods: A statistical research design was used that included a validated instrument: the developing evidence-based practice questionnaire (Gerrish et al. 2007). A total of 1,800 Victorian practice nurses were surveyed with a return of 590 completed questionnaires, equaling a response rate of 33%.Findings: Lack of time to access knowledge for practice was a barrier for participants in this study. In-service education and training opportunities were ranked as the number one source of knowledge for general practice nurses. Experiential learning and interactions with clients, peers, medical practitioners, and specialist nurses were also considered very important sources of knowledge. Research journals were ranked much lower than experiential learning and personal interactions. Participants assessed their own skills at sourcing and translating evidence into practice knowledge as low. Younger general practice nurses were more likely than older nurses to assess themselves as competent at using the library and Internet to locate evidence.Discussion: The predominantly oral culture of nursing needs to be identified and incorporated into methods for disseminating evidence from research findings in order to increase the knowledge base of Australian general practice nurses.Conclusions: Findings from this study will be significant for policy makers and funders of Australian nursing in general practice. The establishment of a career structure for general practice nurses that includes salaried positions for clinical nurse specialists would assist in the translation of evidence into knowledge for utilization at the point of care.KEYWORDS family practice, general practice, nurse, evidence-based health care, clinical nursing research, knowledgeWorldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing 2009; x(x):1-10.

Survey sources of knowledge used by intensive care nurses in clinical knowledge source used in nursing practice

“…These findings are consistent with many other studies (Estabrooks et al, 2005;Mills and Field, 2009;Bringsvor et al, 2014;Kosteniuk et al, 2006). The reasons for nurses' lack of interest in the use of internet in many studies include; lack of access to internet at work place, lack of internet searching skills, negative attitude and lack of self-confidence (Kahouei et al, 2014;Mills and Field, 2009;Bringsvor et al, 2014;Cheraghi, 2009 ). Although this result was predictable, it seems that, hospital's librarians and IT experts can play an important role in teaching nurses internet searching skills and consequently, promoting evidence-based practice (Kahouei et al, 2014).…”

“…Since, practicing in accordance to these guidelines is obligatory, thus it is necessary to 1) use scientific and precise methods to develop them, 2) use encouraging strategies in their implementation by personal and group education, and 3) managers pay more attention to the design and use of nursing guidelines. Findings of this study showed that, medical and nursing journals were the least important sources of knowledge for the nurses in their practice which is in line with the studies of Mills and Field (2009) and Ozsoy and Ardahan (2008), and is inconsistent with the studies of Kosteniuk (2006) and Estabrooks et al (2005). Latest journals and research findings can be beneficial in provision of scientific and evidencebased care for patients but this approach has not gained its rightful place in Iran's nursing practice, whereas, development of evidence-based practice requires knowledge and skills in searching, understanding and interpreting research's findings (Younger, 2010).…”

Staff perceptions of families in rural residential aged care

“…The response rate to this study was low (47%); however this is not dissimilar to other Australian studies surveying nurses [9][10][11][12] . Recruitment of participants is important for controlling bias and obtaining a representative sample, however rural research is notorious for small sample sizes and resultant difficulty in showing statistical significance [13] .…”

Factors affecting evidence translation for general practice nurses

“…6 Our study surveyed nurses who work in general medical practices (practice nurses) in Victoria, Australia. 9 The overall aim of the study was threefold.…”

“…Over the past five years the role of the general practice nurse in Australia has expanded and new funding models are now being implemented that develop the autonomy of this role. 10 The questionnaire used in this study is based on the Developing Evidence-based Practice Questionnaire (DEPQ) 11 , which was amended to add demographic detail and renamed the DEPQ-Au. A total of 1,800 Victorian practice nurses were surveyed using the DEPQ-Au instrument with a response rate of 33% (n=590).…”