A description of factors facilitating and contraining the use of research: The point of view of Tunisian nurses
Background: the literture agrees on the importance of nursing research as a means of improving the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of care and of contributing to advancing the discipline of nursing. Studies from different countries have attempted to describe the barriers to and the factors facilitating the use of researchers by nursing staff, however, no original studies have been conducted in Tunisia. Purpose and Framework: Using Rogers’s theory of innovation, this study aims to identify factors facilitating and contraining the use of research as an innovation from the point of view of Tunisian nurses. Methods: a mixed descriptive design allowed us to collect the perceptions of five nurse managers and thirty-seven nurse clinicians in two care units of the university hospital of Sousse in Tunisia. Three methods of data collection were used: either semistructured interviews (n=5), a self-reported questionnaire that included Funk et al.’s scale of measurement of the barriers of using research (n=37), and an observation grid of the units of participating care (n=2). Results: a triangulation of data revealed that organizational factors seem to be the main determinants of using research. In fact, the average score calculated for the four factors of Funk’s scale showed that for the interviewed nurses, the characteristics of the organization present the highest average (3.01), followed by those relating to the characteristics of the nurse (2.86), of the research (2.73), and of the diffusion (2.55). The qualitative analysis supports these results. Discussion: the recommendations for the value of using the results of this research in Tunisia were formulated, followed by limitations of the study.
Key words
- research utilization
- facilitating factors
- contraining factors
- nursing