Research Utilisation in Health Care Professionals

In the clinical setting, it is now expected that health care practitioners adopt evidence based practice to ensure high quality care and patient safety is maintained (Tuite & George 2010). Adopting an evidence based approach in healthcare will also help to ensure that, the care provided, is more likely to be cost effective and will result in positive patient outcomes (Jones & Bourgeouis 2007, p. 88; Bevan 2010, p. 142). However the research and evidence provided is always changing therefore it is important for health professionals to continually stay up to date and further develop their knowledge in relation to their field of practice (Timmins & Pallen 2002, p. 100). This can be a difficult task and not all health professionals utilise research in their practice even though they know the benefits of researching (McDonnell 2004, p. 185).
This essay will explore the reasons why health care professionals do not utilise research in their practice. It will then help identify the strategies for enhancing research utilisation by health care professionals in the clinical settings. By identifying these strategies, health professionals may be able to adopt their strategies and act as a change agent in their clinical setting. This role of a change agent will then be discussed to help other health professionals implement change within their workplace to ensure evidence based research is adopted and help to increase positive patient outcomes.

The information for this essay was gathered from UOW Library databases such as Proquest, ScienceDirect, Cochrane Collection, Academic Onefile and Informit Health Collection. Keywords such as “research”, “utilisation”, “professional”, “practice”, “barriers”, “recommendations”, “change agents”, “evidence based practice”, “strategies”, “change agents”, “health care” and “implementation” were used in the searches. The articles chosen were limited to research that was conducted within the last 15 years and were used when the abstract showed... [continues]

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