To Örebro University

Background: Nurses working in hospital wards, have been reported as low users of research when organizing their clinical work. Two main factors that could influence the nurses research utilization have been identified; leadership and time for reflection.

Aim: The overall aim was to evaluate an intervention organi- zed with the purpose of supporting nurse leaders to facilitate research utilization among clinically working nurses.

Design and methods: Based on focus group interviews with nurse leaders, an educational intervention for nurse leaders was developed. The intervention was given to approximately one third of the nurse leaders at a university hospital. It con- sists of four educational workshops with themes like practical research support, nursing theory, leading for research and literature search strategies, and was performed over a half-year period. The focus of the intervention was to provide practical paths to stimulate research utilization and to create a reflective approach among the nurse leaders.

We also provided the nurse leaders with a ”mentor of sci- ence”. Before and after the intervention a survey was sent to all nurses working on the hospital wards. The survey consisted of questions about the working climate and how they use research in their daily work.

Results: Preliminary results from the focus groups indicates that the nurse leaders ask for external support, and “hands on help” so the intervention was designed to provide that. The pre-intervention survey was answered by 591 nurses and will be repeated approximately one year after the intervention is completed.