The Relationship between Nurses’ Attitudes towards Evidence-Based Nursing and Barriers to Research Utilization: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Abstract

Objective: This study was conducted to determine the relationship between nurses’ attitudes towards evidence-based nursing and barriers to the use of research. Methods: This study was a descriptive cross-sectional survey. The study carried out with 500 nurses working in a state hospital in Turkey. The data were collected with using a Nurse Descriptive Form, the Evidence Based Nursing Attitude Questionnaire and the Barriers to Research Utilization Scale. The analysis of data was used the Kruskal Wallis analyses, post hoc test (Tamhane’s), Mann Whitney U-test, and Spearman correlation analysis. Results: The mean age of the nurses was 31.50 ± 7.57 years, 72.6% of them were female, and 54.4% had bachelor degree level education. The nurses’ Attitude Scale item total mean score was 3.58 ± .48. The belief subscale of this scale has the highest score with 3.80 ± .59. The nurses’ Barriers Scale item total mean was 2.65 ± .28. On this scale, the subscale with the highest score was setting, with 3.04 ± .47. Nurses’ between attitude and barriers scale item total mean was found a weak correlation (r = .199, p < .05). Conclusion: Nurses had highly positive attitudes towards evidence-based nursing. They had a medium level of barriers to the use of research. The nurses’ greatest barriers came from the subscale of setting. Even though nurses’ scores on attitudes towards evidence-based nursing were high, it was seen that there were barriers to the use of research. For this reason, a plan should be developed to increase nurses' knowledge and awareness of the research process that will increase compliance with future protocol practices, through the implementation of evidence-based nursing and identifying barriers to research use.