Barriers to Research among Faculty at a Health Sciences University

Research in the health sciences is needed in order to continue to improve patient care. A survey was distributed to investigate barriers to research among Dentistry, Nursing and Allied Health Professionals academic faculty at a public health sciences university in the United States. Among the 86 faculty respondents, the majority (58%) of faculty identified “lack of time for me to do research” to be the single largest barrier to their own research activity and this item had a higher mean score than all other barriers to research examined. Lack of time was significantly more problematic among female faculty (p=0.006). Research resources were a greater barrier than relevance of research (p<0.001). Respondents noted that clinical duties are frequently a higher priority than research among health sciences faculty, presumably due to shortages in funding and resources. Given the importance of research to the future quality of patient care, efforts should be made to protect health science faculty members’ time and to provide the resources necessary to conduct meaningful research.