A research on the barriers for research utilization by nurses in public hospitals in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

Carrying out research in a profession is very important in that it provides competency and autonomy. Professional nurses need to use research findings in order to enhance, change and support nursing implementation. Identifying the barriers for nurses to use research findings and the related factors will guide us to develop research utilization, create research culture and develop research utilization strategies.Aim: The aim of this study is to explore the perceived barriers and related factors for research utilization in practice by nurses in public hospitals in T.R.N.C.Method: The sample of this study, which has been carried out in a descriptive and cross-sectional manner, is composed of 407 nurses (67,5%) employed in public hospitals in T.R.N.C. A question form (18 questions) including demographic and work characteristics of nurses and ?Research Utilization Barriers Scale? developed by Funk et al (1991) and adapted into Turkish by Bayık et al (2005) have been used for data collection. The question ?how preventive is the research being published in a foreign language?? has been added to the scale which is composed of 29 items. Attitudes of nurses related to research utilization has been measured by a 5-point Likert scale. Descriptive statistics, t test and one-way ANOVA are used in the analysis of data.Findings: Among the factors that hinder research utilization, the highest score was obtained from ?organization?, and the lowest score was obtained from ?research? dimension. The item identified as the most hindering barrier perceived by nurses in research utilization is ?The relevant literature is not compiled in one place? (78.1%). The second rank is occupied by ?Research reports/article are written in English? (74.5%). Among the first ten barriers, six of them are located in organization subscale, two of them are located in nurse subscale and one of them is located in presentation subscale. It is identified that some socio-demographic characteristics of nurses, their participation in research activities and their attitudes about research affect research utilization particularly in nurse and organizational levels.Conclusion: The results of the study indicate that the organizational factors are high-level barriers to nurses? research utilization, that it is necessary that in order to overcome these barriers, administrators need to create research culture by making organizational arrangements, provide nurses with educational opportunities and support, and develop research utilization strategies.Key words: Research utilization, nursing research, barriers to research, research activities, research attitude