Sylvie Robichaud-Ekstrand
University of Moncton, Canada
Title: New-Brunswick nurses’ views on nursing research and factors influencing their research activities in clinical practice
Biography
Biography: Sylvie Robichaud-Ekstrand
Abstract
New-Brunswick became the first province in Canada to require a baccalaureate degree in nursing as the entry to practice, yet, nursing research activities in hospital settings remain quite low. The main objective of the study was to (a) examine nurses’ views on nursing research; exploring their value, role, interest, experience, perceived support for nursing research, and their utilization of health information technologies, and (b) to determine if age, level of education, number of years working as a nurse, and employment position were contributing factors to the research-practice gap in clinical practice. This descriptive cross-sectional multicenter study involved 1 081 nurses (65%) working in the Francophone Regional Health Authority Vitalité in New-Brunswick. Nurses valued nursing research at 82.3%. They were very keen in identifying nursing care problems to improve patient care (92.9%), to find ways to solve nursing care problems (93.8%), to be involved in collecting data on research projects. But without research supervision, few had engaged in basic research activities such as identifying a problem that led to a research project (24.5%), or presenting at a conference (6.9%). Younger, more educated nurses, and Nurse Managers and educators participated more readily in research activities, and were more competent with information technologies. Creating a collaborative clinical-academic research network is a strategy recommended for sharing research infrastructures, academic- research and clinical expertise, and patients. Concrete actions presented intend to build clinical nursing research capacity and to sustain a nursing research culture in clinical settings in New-Brunswick.