Perceptions of research utilization: comparisons between health care professionals, nursing students and a reference group of nurse clinicians

The study reported in this paper was carried out to investigate a group of nursing teachers' (n=37), nursing students' (n=166), nursing administrators ' (n=33) and physicians' (n=127) perceptions of barriers to and facilitator s of nurses' use of research findings in clinical practice. The results wer e compared with the corresponding figures for a reference group of nurse cl inicians (n=237). The Barriers Scale and a questionnaire for the demographi c issues were used for data collection. The organization and the communicat ion of research were seen as barriers to research utilization by the nursin g teachers, students and administrators in agreement with the nurse clinici ans. The nurses' research-related competence and awareness were seen as bar riers by the nursing teachers, students and administrators to a greater ext ent than by the nurse clinicians themselves. The physicians perceived barri ers to a lesser extent than the other groups did. The students' perceptions were closest to the nurse clinicians, while the physicians' perceptions di ffered most. Education to increase the nurses' knowledge of research and to develop their competence to evaluate research results, increased resources for education, more staff, support from the administration and research pr esented in a user-friendly way were the most frequently suggested facilitat ors. The nurses' isolation from knowledgeable colleagues with whom to discu ss the research was seen as a barrier by the majority of the participants. This indicates a need for positions in clinical practice for nursing resear chers, in order to promote a research-based, nursing practice.