Abstract
Caring practices are expected to rely on scientific knowledge, thus results from research must be known to practitioners. The aim of this study was to explore nurses' view of their opportunities to update nursing research and to see if differences emerged between long-term and acute care settings. Data were collected through a semi-structured questionnaire from 43 registered nurses on duty during one day-shift and one night-shift in two nursing homes and on two medical wards in an acute care hospital. The results showed that all nurses held very positive opinions on the usefulness of nursing research for their practice. A major concern reported by both the nursing home nurses and the medical ward nurses was the lack of support and interest from their superiors. Hindrances to up-date research were the poor supply of scientific nursing journals, lack of time and opportunities for discussion with nursing colleagues and lack of own knowledge of relevant information channels. Nursing students were the main informants of research articles. Conclusions made were that all nurses recognized the professional importance of nursing research but lacked up-dated knowledge and administrative support. In this samle no differences of specific importence could be noted between the organizational settings. It is suggested that support for and barriers to nursing research information is the criterion for quality assessment of care institutions.
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