Journal of Education and Health Promotion

Abstract Background: The application of the nursing research findings is one of the most important
indicators of development in the nursing profession, which leads to providing efficient and
effective patient care and improving the quality of nursing care. According the result of some
studies, transferring the evidence‑based findings to the nurses’ practice and education in
the world has been slow and sometimes unsuccessful. This study aimed to investigate the
most important barriers to the application of research findings from the nurses’ perspective.
Materials and Methods: This cross‑sectional study conducted on a sample of 210 nurses
in a teaching hospital in Tehran in 2013. The data were collected using a researcher‑made
questionnaire consisted of two parts, including items about nurses’ demographic characteristics
and 30 items to identify the most important barriers to the application of research findings from
the studied nurses’ perspective. Results: “The lack of sufficient time for reading the studies,”
“the lack of sufficient time to implement the new ideas,” “the lack of adequate facilities to
implement the ideas,” “nurses’ little interest in conducting studies,” and “the lack of authority
to change the methods and patterns of care” with, respectively, 85%, 84.6%, 83.8%, 83.4%,
and 80.5% agreement with the existence of barriers were the most barriers to application of
research findings from the studied nurses’ perspective. Conclusion: The lack of time was the
most important barrier to the use of research findings from the perspective of studied nurses.
Therefore, some effective strategies should be used by hospital managers and health policy
makers to overcome this barrier. Some of these strategies can be employing new personnel
and hiring skilled and efficient human resources in order to decrease the workload of nurses,
organizing the nurses’ work shifts, providing right balance between patients and nurses in the
wards, etc.