Nurse’s Perception of Barriers to Research Utilization in Hospitals; Comparative Descriptive Study

Background: Although the number of studies on research utilization is steadily growing, but still there is a strong need to identify the main causes that inhibit the use of research findings in the clinical setting. Aim of the Study: To assess nurse’s perception of barriers to research utilization in Saudi Arabia and Palestine Hospitals. This study focuses on medical and surgical nurses in private hospitals. Method: A convenient sample of 156 medical nurses, from 6 general private hospitals, 3 from north Palestine and 3 from Riyadh City (KSA). Results: Out of 180 nurses employed from private hospitals, a total of 156 questionnaires were returned (response rate 86.67%). Results in a final sample size for analysis of 156. The demographic characteristics, age, gender, hospital, role on health care team, clinical experience, marital status, education degree, and current certified in a special area of respondents are shown in Table 1. Their mean age was 29.41, about half of them below 6-year clinical experience 77 (49.4%). Although around 90 (57.7%) of the participants from Palestine hospitals and 66 (42.3%) from Saudi Arabia hospitals, almost half of them their education (diploma) 85 (54.5%). In addition, 114 (73.1%) were female, 85 (54.5%) have current certified in a special area, and 140 (89.7%) respondents worked as staff nurses. Regarding perceptions of barriers to research utilization, the results of the barriers show in the total scale a mean of 3.15 out of 5 f (SD = 0.55; 95% CI 3.05 to 3.23). The subscales of setting and research were the highest one (mean = 3.22, SD = (0.63), and the lowest one is “nurse” (mean = 2.95, SD = 0.75). Conclusions: The main barriers of research utilization in practice for nurse are nurses themselves, the setting in the hospitals and research in its process and findings.