The motivation of health professionals to explore research evidence in their practice: an intervention study

Aim. To assess the impact of multifaceted clinically focused educational strategies that concentrated on introducing dementia care research evidence on health professionals’ awareness and inclination to use research findings in their future practice. Background. The promise of evidence‐based practice is slow to materialize with the limitations of adopting research findings in practice readily identifiable. Method. A pre‐ and post‐test quasi experimental design. The study involved the administration of: a pretest (baseline), an intervention phase, and a post‐test survey, the same research utilization survey. Tool. The Edmonton Research Orientation Survey (EROS), a self‐report tool that asks participants about their attitudes toward research and about their potential to use research findings, was used to determine health professionals' orientation to research. Intervention. The introduction of dementia care research evidence through multifaceted clinically focused educational strategies to improve practice. This was achieved through a resource team comprising a Clinical Nurse Consultant, as a leader and resource of localized evidence‐based knowledge in aged care; an experienced Registered Nurse to support the introduction of strategies and a further experienced educator and clinician to reinforce the importance of evidence in change. Results. Across all the four subscales that are measured in the Edmonton Research Orientation Survey, statistical analysis by independent samples t‐test identified that there was no significant change between the before and after measurements. Relevance to clinical practice. Successful integration of changes based on evidence does not necessarily mean that staff become more aware or are more inclined to use research findings in future to address problems.