Patterns of research utilization on patient care units

Area of Science:

• Nursing Research
• Healthcare Management
• Organizational Behavior

Background:

• Organizational context is crucial for healthcare professionals' research utilization.
• Nurses, as the largest healthcare group, significantly influence patient and system outcomes.
• Previous research often overlooked organizational factors, focusing on individual determinants of research use.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the determinants of research use among hospital nurses.
• To specifically identify contextual determinants influencing research utilization in nursing practice.

Main Methods:

• Comparative ethnographic case study of seven patient care units across four hospitals.
• Employed mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative data collection) over six months.
• Utilized correspondence analysis to map relationships between factors influencing research use.

Main Results:

• High research utilization units demonstrated strong nurse critical thinking, positive unit culture, and perceived environmental complexity.
• Moderate utilization correlated with organizational support and intent to use research.
• High nursing workloads and lack of support were linked to low research utilization.

Conclusions:

• Modifiable organizational context at the patient care unit level impacts nurses' research utilization.
• Findings suggest implications for designing healthcare units to foster evidence-based practice.
• Provides a foundation for developing interventions to improve research use among nurses.