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    Patterns of Research Utilization on Patient Care Units

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    Copyright 2008 Estabrooks et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
    Date Issued
    2008-6-2
    Publisher Version
    10.1186/1748-5908-3-31
    Author(s)
    Estabrooks, Carole A.
    Scott, Shannon
    Squires, Janet E.
    Stevens, Bonnie
    O'Brien-Pallas, Linda
    Watt-Watson, Judy
    Profetto-McGrath, Joanne
    McGilton, Kathy
    Golden-Biddle, Karen
    Lander, Janice
    Donner, Gail
    Boschma, Geertje
    Humphrey, Charles K.
    Williams, Jack
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    Permanent Link
    https://hdl.handle.net/2144/3438
    Citation (published version)
    Estabrooks, Carole A, Shannon Scott, Janet E Squires, Bonnie Stevens, Linda O'Brien-Pallas, Judy Watt-Watson, Joanne Profetto-McGrath, Kathy McGilton, Karen Golden-Biddle, Janice Lander, Gail Donner, Geertje Boschma, Charles K Humphrey, Jack Williams. "Patterns of research utilization on patient care units" Implementation Science 3:31. (2008)
    Abstract
    BACKGROUND. Organizational context plays a central role in shaping the use of research by healthcare professionals. The largest group of professionals employed in healthcare organizations is nurses, putting them in a position to influence patient and system outcomes significantly. However, investigators have often limited their study on the determinants of research use to individual factors over organizational or contextual factors. METHODS. The purpose of this study was to examine the determinants of research use among nurses working in acute care hospitals, with an emphasis on identifying contextual determinants of research use. A comparative ethnographic case study design was used to examine seven patient care units (two adult and five pediatric units) in four hospitals in two Canadian provinces (Ontario and Alberta). Data were collected over a six-month period by means of quantitative and qualitative approaches using an array of instruments and extensive fieldwork. The patient care unit was the unit of analysis. Drawing on the quantitative data and using correspondence analysis, relationships between various factors were mapped using the coefficient of variation. RESULTS. Units with the highest mean research utilization scores clustered together on factors such as nurse critical thinking dispositions, unit culture (as measured by work creativity, work efficiency, questioning behavior, co-worker support, and the importance nurses place on access to continuing education), environmental complexity (as measured by changing patient acuity and re-sequencing of work), and nurses' attitudes towards research. Units with moderate research utilization clustered on organizational support, belief suspension, and intent to use research. Higher nursing workloads and lack of people support clustered more closely to units with the lowest research utilization scores. CONCLUSION. Modifiable characteristics of organizational context at the patient care unit level influences research utilization by nurses. These findings have implications for patient care unit structures and offer beginning direction for the development of interventions to enhance research use by nurses.
    Rights
    Copyright 2008 Estabrooks et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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    • QSB: Scholarly Works [183]


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