Perceived barriers and enablers of nursing research in the Italian context: Findings from a systematic review
Article Category: Review Article
Pubblicato online: 28 giu 2022
Pagine: 181 - 190
Ricevuto: 15 feb 2022
Accettato: 04 mag 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/sjph-2022-0024
Parole chiave
© 2022 National Institute of Public Health, Slovenia, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.
Introduction
The research capacity of nurses has been reported to be still constrained in several countries, and not fully implemented in its potentiality due to a large number of factors. Despite its relevance both for clinical and public health purposes, no summary has been compiled to date regarding factors influencing the research capacity in the Italian context. Therefore, the primary aim of this review was to identify the barriers and enablers of conducting research as perceived by Italian nurses.
Methods
We conducted a systematic review. The following databases have been searched: ILISI ® (Indice della Letteratura Italiana di Scienze Infermieristiche) MEDLINE-via PubMed, CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), Ovid, Open Grey, Google Scopus, and Web of Science. Eight studies met the inclusion criteria.
Results
The studies were mainly descriptive, with two quasi-experimental. A total of seven barriers and four facilitators of conducting research among Italian nurses were identified. The constraints were poor English knowledge, technology and library availability and accessibility, understaffing and lack of time, nursing culture characteristics, lack of nursing leadership support, scarce funding availability, and the bureaucratic ethical committee process. The facilitators were nursing journal reading, expert research team support, university and hospital partnerships, and international cooperation.
Conclusions
Given the small number and the high heterogeneity of the emerged studies, this systematic review provides an initial framework for the constraints that prevent, and the strategies that promote, Italian nurses’ participation/conducting of research projects that could inform policies in this field.