Barriers to and Facilitators of research utilization among nurses of teaching hospitals in Tabriz, 2001

Background and The nurses has long recognized the importance of research as an essential basis for nursing development. More recently the movement of promoting evidence- based practice has brought this point into focus. However, the past studies show that the amount of utilization is in low extent. So this study was conducted to explore the barriers to and facilitators of research utilization among nurses who worked at teaching hospitals in Tabriz in 2001. In this descriptive study nurses who worked at teaching hospitals were participated. A questionnaire on demographic status and self-report Funk Barriers Scale (1991) were used. Data was processed using descriptive statistics. Three major barriers to research utilization mentioned by nurses were “the facilities are inadequate for implementation”, “physicians will not co-operate with implementation of research results” and “the nurses do not have time to read research articles”. In nurses point of view, facilitators of research utilization were “instruction of research skills” and “supportive evaluation and management”. In comparison to other studies, in our study a higher number of barriers were perceived. “Providing resources for education” and “facilitating research utilization in practice”, come along with removing barriers and developing appropriate facilities and rules, can result in improvement of nursing practice and quality of care.