Research utilization and attitudes towards research among psychiatric nurses in Northern Ireland

Evidence-based practice depends on a number of factors including practitioners' attitudes towards, and knowledge of, research, the availability and access to relevant research, adequate resources and managers' support. Yet little is known about these issues with regard to psychiatric nurses. The aim of this study was to survey psychiatric nurses on their attitudes to research, their perceptions of their use of research and other research-related activities. This paper reports data collected from a convenience sample of 236 nurses from the six main psychiatric hospitals and from the psychiatric wards of six general hospitals. The results show that, while they report positive attitudes towards research, their perception of their use of research in practice indicates that evidence-based practice is far from being realized. There is also some evidence to suggest that psychiatric nurses' reported extent of research utilization and frequency of reading research literature in this study are lower than those of general nurses. The implications of these and other findings are discussed.