Motivation and Barriers to Research among Nursing Professionals in Southeast Spain

Background: Nursing research promotes quality care and is essential. Thus, it is important to acknowledge the main motivations and barriers that nursing professionals find in their work, the aim of this study was to establish the main aspects that motivate and make nursing research difficult, for nursing professionals; Methods: a descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on 91 nursing professionals. A validated structured questionnaire composed of 42 items that defined five domains was used. Descriptive and bivariant analyses were performed; Results: the highest scores were obtained for the domain of Knowledge and Preparation (33.79 ± 3.38), while the domain of Available Resources and Support obtained lower mean values (22.60 ± 5.61). Significant differences were found in two domains: Knowledge and Preparation and Professional Development domains, when regarding the service in which the participants were working (p < 0.05); in the Available Resources and Support domain, when regarding sex (p < 0.05), in the Motivations domain, regarding the number of children (p < 0.05); Conclusions: nursing professionals show a positive attitude towards nursing research. The nurses find motivation in their work environment, in the economic incentives, or in the possibility to improve their curriculum vitae. The main barriers are the lack of time, the lack of institutional support, and the lack of training, especially in languages, such as English. These findings could be useful to design programs to overcome these barriers.