Geriatric hospital nurses' perceived barriers to research utilization and empowerment

The quality of nursing care in geriatric hospitals has been of concern. Nurses need to provide evidence-based nursing using best available research findings in order to maximize the quality of care. Research utilization is a major part of evidence-based nursing practice. Empowerment is an important factor that may influence the context of nursing practice. The purpose of this study was to identify the barriers to research utilization in nursing practice and its relationship to empowerment perceived by registered nurses (RNs) in geriatric hospitals.

A descriptive, correlational design was used. A total of 147 RNs from six geriatric hospitals in K province of Korea participated. The BARRIERS scale and the Conditions of Work Empowerment Questionnaire-II were administered to identify perceived barriers to the use of research findings and the level of perceived empowerment respectively.

Participants rated that research reports being written in English constituted the greatest barrier to the use of research findings. The score was the highest for the Communication domain, suggesting the greatest barrier, and the lowest for the Adopter domain. Subscales of the Conditions of Work Empowerment Questionnaire-II were significant predictors of the Adopter, Organization, and Communication domains of the BARRIERS scale.

This study found that RNs in geriatric hospitals perceived that interpreting and understanding research reports in English was the greatest barrier to the use of research findings. Administrators and nurse managers of geriatric hospitals need to provide RNs with opportunities to participate in research-related activities and to empower RNs in order to facilitate research utilization.