Barriers to and facilitators of research utilization in practice as seen by a group of perioperative nurses in New Brunswick

This comparative descriptive study was conducted at a public regional hospital located in the south-east region of the province of New Brunswick, Canada. The purpose of this study was to identify if the barriers to and facilitators of research utilization in a group of perioperative nurses are similar to other research areas utilizing the same scale.

The data collection process was done over a two (2) month period utilizing the Barriers and Facilitators to Using Research in Practice questionnaire (BARRIERS Scale) developed by Funk et al. (1991). The fmal sample size consisted of 46 nurses (61% response rate) who completed the survey.

The results show that the top barrier was 'The nurse does not feel she/he has enough authority to change patient care procedures' followed by 'physicians will not cooperate with implementation'. Seven out of the top ten barriers were related to the `setting'. The facilitating factors most frequently suggested by the nurses were related to the setting (organization) as well as the models of education to increase their knowledge of research methods and to develop skills in evaluating research findings. These results are congruent with previous findings regarding the barriers to research utilization. The implication of these and other findings are also discussed.