The effect of staff nurse participation in a clinical nursing research project on attitude towards, access to, support of and use of research in the acute care setting.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of participation in research on staff nurses' attitude towards, access to, perceived support of and reported use of research in practice. Six medical surgical units in a southeastern Ontario teaching hospital were randomly assigned to receive 3 different levels of exposure to research: high, low and usual. On the high participation units, a clinical research group consisting of the investigator and interested nurses (n = 18) critiqued research literature related to an important clinical issue (i.e., patterns of sleep) and designed and implemented a clinical research study. On the low participation units, a similar clinical research group (n = 10) met once and were involved, solely, in the design and implementation of the clinical research protocol. On the control units, there were no formalized research groups or activities. All registered nurses (n = 235), including the research group participants, on the 6 units were surveyed with a research utilization questionnaire (RUQ) pre and post participant intervention. The RUQ scores were higher on the high participation units at baseline and post intervention in comparison to the low and control units. Nurses who participated directly in the clinical research groups (high and low) reported similar RUQ scores post intervention and higher scores in comparison to all nurses. All RUQ scores were higher post intervention. Nurses with clinical expertise but minimal research expertise participated meaningfully in clinical research. While participation had an individual effect there was no unit effect, suggesting other factors, such as organizational support and culture, are important determinants of research use.