Research utilization and attitudes towards research among learning disability nurses in Northern Ireland

The current emphasis on evidence-based practice has focused attention once again on the research activities of health professionals in general and the ir research utilization in particular. While there has been a limited numbe r of studies on research utilization in the United Kingdom, these have tend ed to concentrate on general nurses and midwives. Little is known about the research activities, research utilization and the attitudes to research of learning disability nurses. This paper reports on data from a survey of a convenience sample of 87 nurses from three learning disability hospitals in Northern ireland. The results show that while these nurses generally held positive attitudes to research, a substantial minority (18.3%) believed tha t 'research is not relevant to the day to day work in nursing'. Only a quar ter of the sample reported using research 'frequently/all the time' in thei r practice. The extent of research utilization among these disability nurse s must be considerably improved if evidence-based practice is to become a r eality in their field of nursing.