| Learning Objective #1: Identify the contextual factors that inhibit or facilitate research uptake | |||
| Learning Objective #2: Review the types of problems practitioners may face in the translation of research evidence into practice recommendations |
DESIGN: An qualitative methodology using participant observation of a series of clinical workgroup meetings to access the practical reasoning of clinical nurse specialists.
POPULATION, SETTING, SAMPLE, YEARS: Three groups of specialist nurses from multiple health care providers in the North West of England were observed over 3 meetings. The groups were chosen to reflect different task types and settings known to influence decision making.
METHOD: Data was collected using a modified focus group methodology, analysed using grounded data reduction, and was subject to external verification of description and inference.
FINDINGS: The study results describe how information from research provided evidence of risk, cost or benefit that influenced the decision to adopt or reject an innovation. The results from the study illustrate the nurses’ practical reasoning about the fit between research and practice and the contextual factors that inhibited or facilitated research uptake for specific nursing tasks.
CONCLUSIONS: The study draws attention to the types of problems practitioners face in the translation of research evidence into practice recommendations, including the complex, iterative and unpredictable product of interaction between the information and context, and the gradual transformation of evidence and refinement of decisions to cater for the complexities of practice. External influences on research use were unique to personal and organisational context, forming a situation specific backdrop against which variations in practice - which often appeared irrational and resistant to evidence - could be better understood.
IMPLICATIONS: These results have implications for strategies to encourage “evidence-based practice” in applied disciplines, and point to a need for a better understanding of the complex realities of context before strategies to improve research use will be successful.
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Sigma Theta Tau International
July 21, 2004