Dissemination of Nursing Knowledge

Despite the dramatic growth of nursing research and the development of nursing theory over the last 25 years, concern remains that nurses frequently fail to base their practice on the findings and recommendations of research. It is through research conducted by nurses that new knowledge can be obtained in order to implement good quality care in clinical practice. However, even when new knowledge is gained, its dissemination remains low. Several barriers to the dissemination of nursing knowledge in clinical practice have been identified. These include: lack of awareness of nursing research, lack of knowledge of the research process and the inability to understand research reports. These factors may contribute to negative attitudes among nurses regarding the use of nursing research in their clinical practice. However, research must filter down from academia to practicing nurses at all levels but it cannot make practicing nurses use research. One of the main priorities in the dissemination of nursing knowledge in clinical practice is to make research findings more “user friendly.” The use of a clinical nurse specialist or research nurse (that is a nurse with a defined role within research), combined with an action research approach, could increase the utilization of research findings in clinical nursing. The use of Journal club, research seminars, research workshops and nursing conferences are some of the enabling process in order to increase the dissemination of knowledge. The use of the model of change would enable us to understand whether nurses have the readiness to change and implement new nursing knowledge in to practice.