To what extent do nurses use research in clinical practice? A systematic review

Abstract

BackgroundIn the past forty years, many gains have been made in our understanding of the concept of research utilization. While numerous studies exist on professional nurses' use of research in practice, no attempt has been made to systematically evaluate and synthesize this body of literature with respect to the extent to which nurses use research in their clinical practice. The objective of this study was to systematically identify and analyze the available evidence related to the extent to which nurses use research findings in practice.MethodsThis study was a systematic review of published and grey literature. The search strategy included 13 online bibliographic databases: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, HAPI, Web of Science, SCOPUS, OCLC Papers First, OCLC WorldCat, ABI Inform, Sociological Abstracts, and Dissertation Abstracts. The inclusion criteria consisted of primary research reports that assess professional nurses' use of research in practice, written in the English or Scandinavian languages. Extent of research use was determined by assigning research use scores reported in each article to one of four quartiles: low, moderate-low, moderate-high, or high.ResultsFollowing removal of duplicate citations, a total of 12,418 titles were identified through database searches, of which 133 articles were retrieved. Of the articles retrieved, 55 satisfied the inclusion criteria. The 55 final reports included cross-sectional/survey (n = 51) and quasi-experimental (n = 4) designs. A sensitivity analysis, comparing findings from all reports with those rated moderate (moderate-weak and moderate-strong) and strong quality, did not show significant differences. In a majority of the articles identified (n = 38, 69%), nurses reported moderate-high research use.ConclusionsAccording to this review, nurses' reported use of research is moderate-high and has remained relatively consistent over time until the early 2000's. This finding, however, may paint an overly optimistic picture of the extent to which nurses use research in their practice given the methodological problems inherent in the majority of studies. There is a clear need for the development of standard measures of research use and robust well-designed studies examining nurses' use of research and its impact on patient outcomes. The relatively unchanged self-reports of moderate-high research use by nurses is troubling given that over 40 years have elapsed since the first studies in this review were conducted and the increasing emphasis in the past 15 years on evidence-based practice. More troubling is the absence of studies in which attempts are made to assess the effects of varying levels of research use on patient outcomes.

Self-care of young people with long-term physical and mental health conditions

“…In some cases this may be due to the interventions being too resource intensive to be feasible to provide in the health service or this may relate to well-recognised and long-standing barriers to translating research into practice (Squires et al 2011). Nevertheless self-care is an important area for nursing practice and one where nurses should play a leadership role.…”

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“…PrEMO © partnerships support Vision 2025 (AOTA, 2016), bridge the education to clinic (Henderson, 2016) and the research to practice gaps in EBP that are often discussed in health care education and practice (King, Wright, & Russell, 2011;Kitson et al, 2008;Squires et al, 2011;WHO, 2006;Woolf, 2008). In addition, PrEMO © offers a strategy for quality fieldwork experiences for students, supports the unique goals of clinicians and their organizations, and creates practice-based scholarship opportunities for faculty.…”

“…Still, studies indicate that the actual use of research evidence in every day practice remains low, with few clinicians basing clinical decisions on professional literature or published research (Salls, Dolhi, Silverman, & Hansen, 2009). This "research to practice gap" (Squires et al, 2011) is a growing concern across health care (Castiglione & Ritchie, 2012;Ciliska, 2012;WHO, 2006). Also described as the secondgap of knowledge translation (Woolf, 2008) and the know-do gap (WHO, 2006), the lag in application of research knowledge to practice has been identified by the director of the WHO as "one of the most important challenges facing public health in this century" (WHO, 2006, p. 1).…”

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