The Article: Roberts, S., Jackson, C., & Dewing, J. (2012). Review of research findings suggesting nurses overreport their use of research. Evidence-Based Nursing, 15(1): 6-7.

Big Idea: This article suggests frontline nurses overreport their use of nursing research, which may indicate evidence-based practice within nursing is not growing as fast as originally thought.

Survey Says!: The authors conducted a systematic review of thirteen online databases, which resulted in 55 articles included in the examination. They then scored the articles regarding the extent the research was used per the article authors.

Quotable: “12418 citations yielded 133 potentially relevant papers, of which 55 met the inclusion criteria. Most were from North America (71%) and from acute settings (80%). Most papers reported moderate-high research use. They found no significant differences in the extent of research used by nurses since 1981” (p. 6).

“We still have a long way to go in fully understanding what influences nurses’ use of research in practice, and this paper has identified the need to improve the measurement tools and research methods to inform this work” (p. 7).

So What?: This article is a bit ironic, isn’t it? A research article reporting overreporting of research usage? It’s quite brief, but it caught my attention. The authors mention further research needs surrounding this topic, including methodologies, metrics, and the need for baseline data. There are some researchers who believe nurses have not increased their utilization of research to impact patient outcomes over the past three decades. I am not a researcher, but I definitely do not agree with those theorists. I know within my organization frontline nurses are very familiar with nursing research, and we strive to implement those evidence-based practices into our daily nursing practice and culture.

What do you think?