Nurses' attitudes toward nursing research at a metropolitan medical center

Smirnoff, Meg; Ramirez, Marjorie; Kooplimae, Linda; Gibney, Michael; McEvoy, Mary Dee

doi:10.1016/j.apnr.2005.11.003

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Volume 20, Issue 1 , Pages 24-31, February 2007

Nurses' attitudes toward nursing research at a metropolitan medical center

Meg Smirnoff, RN MS, MPH, FNP
- General Clinical Research Center, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Corresponding author. General Clinical Research Center, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY 10029, USA. Tel.: +1 212 241 8254; fax: +1 212 987 5590.
Marjorie Ramirez, MA, EdM, RNC, CAN
- Patient/Family Education, Maternal Child Health Center, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY 10029, USA
Linda Kooplimae, RN, BSN, BC
- Diagnostic and Treatment Center, Department of Pediatrics, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY 10029, USA
Michael Gibney, RN, MA CS, CDE
- Medical Surgical Systems, Becton Dickinson, New York, NY, USA
Mary Dee McEvoy, RN, PhD, AOCN
- The Joseph F. Cullman, Jr., Institute for Patient Care, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY 10029, USA

Received 15 April 2005; accepted 21 November 2005.

Abstract

To support the implementation of a nursing research initiative in a large medical center, we collected baseline data on nurses' attitudes toward nursing research, perception of the institution as a research environment, and personal involvement in research activities. This study replicates that conducted by Rizzuto, Bostrom, Suter, and Chenitz [Predictors of nurses' involvement in research activities. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 16(2), 193–204] in 1994. To better understand the findings, we traced the historical evolution of nursing research through successive American Nurses Association codes of ethics. Our review of the literature presents (in table format) factors that encourage and those that impede nursing research. The study results validate the work of other researchers: nurses' positive attitudes toward research are discordant with their actual involvement in research activities. The data suggest that positive attitudes and perceived institutional support are not enough to increase involvement in nursing research; as such, we describe additional institutional infrastructure and forms of educational support.