Research utilization: making the link to practice

One goal of nursing staff development educators is to update staff practice through the application of nursing research findings. A multi-site study was conducted to determine what factors are related to a nurse's use of research findings. The study suggests that staff involvement in research-related activities such as data collection is the best predictor of use of research findings in the clinical setting. This finding was used to design strategies for facilitating the transfer of research findings to practice.