Barriers to Research Utilization among Registered Nurses at Hamad Medical Corporation

This study aimed to determine the barriers to research utilization from HMC registered nurses' perspectives. This quantitative descriptive study used a newly developed 25-item questionnaire. The questions were categorized into three domains: Nurse-related, System-related and Research-related Barriers. The questionnaire was distributed electronically via e-mail service to all registered nurses in Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) (N = 5000). About 901 responses were collected (response rate = 18%). Of the total responses, 430 met the inclusion criteria. Results showed that System-related barriers domain scored the least average among the three domains. Followed by research and nurse-related barriers domains respectively. Lack of access to research experts (51%), lack of physicians' support to change practice (52%), lack of protected time for research (55%) and lack of other disciplines' support to change practice (57%) were reported as top system-related barriers. The difficulty of utilizing research findings in clinical practice was reported as a research-related barrier (57%). Moreover, results showed a significant relationship (P-value 0.005) between access to research experts and the support from other disciplines with the hospital where the nurses work within HMC. Otherwise, no significant relationship between the identified barriers and demographic characteristics was determined. The findings provided baseline information for an organizational research utilization program, necessary measures such as; protected time, accessibility to research mentors or experts and evidence-based practice units are highly recommended by the frontline nurses through a review of the successful research governance models within HMC.