Research Competency of Professional Nurses

Background: Nurses face increasing demands for high-quality care, driven by local and global health advancements. This necessitates research and the adoption of evidence-based practices to enhance both nursing care and the profession itself. The literature reports the lack of understanding and accessibility of research related to the research capability of nurses. Collaborative nursing research across academic and practice settings is imperative to generate knowledge to improve patient care; however, models of academic/practice partnerships for nursing research are lacking. Aim: This study determined the research competency of professional nurses to serve as a basis for the development of research-based activities. Methods: Utilizing a quantitative descriptive survey design, with the use of a questionnaire and structured small group interview (4 small groups with 3-4 members per small group), data were gathered from 81 nurses employed at hospital X, which is a 250–bed capacity tertiary hospital. The self-made structured questionnaire is valid with a CVI=0.956. Frequency, percentage, mean, and the Kruskal-Wallis test were used to treat the data statistically. Findings: Majority of the respondents belong to the younger population (87.66%) belonging to less than 2-5 years of service in the institution. Respondents are advanced nurse researchers (mean=1.95) and have been serving as respondents in research (50.00). The respondents had the highest mean =2.02 in problem identification and the lowest in research utilization with a mean=1.90. The research competency of nurses is significantly associated with educational attainment, with a p-value of 0.011. Position (p value=0.387), length of service (0.210), area of assignment (p value=0.449), and research involvement (p value=0.169) are not significantly associated with their research competency. Conclusion: Based on the findings of the study, the researchers conclude that nurses who are employed at Hospital X possess the knowledge; however, they lack the practical experience in research. The variable of educational attainment is an important factor in achieving research competency. There are personal, organizational, and professional facilitators and barriers to the research competency of the nurses. A research capability enhancement program for the nurses can be developed. The researchers recommend: enhancing the research competency of the nurses through a research capability-building program developed for them; strengthening the institutional support for ongoing research training, especially for the nurses who are pursuing their postgraduate education or continuing professional development in the research process; recognizing and rewarding research engagement and output among nursing staff to sustain high-level performance; the promotion of mentoring systems where expert and proficient nurses can guide those still developing their research competencies, and the conduct of future studies involving multiple institutions to broaden generalizability and include more inferential analysis.