ATTITUDES OF PALESTINIAN NURSES TOWARD RESEARCH

ABSTRACT— Since the nurses' attitude towards research influence their willingness to engage in research and apply research findings in clinical settings to promote optimum care for patients through evidence‑based nursing practice; nurses need to possess updated knowledge of recent researches and have the ability to refine their acquired knowledge and services to improve the quality of healthcare. However, studies on this topic in Palestine are lacking. This study was aimed to examine nurses’ attitudes and perceptions towards nursing research. A quantitative, cross-sectional design was conducted among randomly selected nurses (n=310) at four Palestinian hospitals. With informed, voluntary consent, data were collected utilizing a self‑administered questionnaires at their workplace. This study results revealed that nurses held a neutral to slightly positive attitude towards nursing research. Breakdown of individual items shows attitudes toward research are positive when looking at the payoff and benefits of research. Nurses showed a slightly positive attitude towards nursing research. Therefore, there is an urgent need to improve research training in our hospital in terms of carrying out and promote the use of nursing research.