Perceptions of barriers to implementing research

This article reports the findings of a study of community nurses to determine their perceptions of barriers to the implementation of research findings in practice. A questionnaire survey using a scale developed in the US (Funk and Champagne 1991) asked community nurse students to rank a series of perceived barriers in order of greatest to least obstruction. The results were also compared with those from Funk and Champagne's study (1991). The authors found that UK nurses considered lack of authority and the inaccessibility of research reports were major barriers to implementing research findings. The authors emphasise the need for collaboration between managers, academics and practitioners to overcome such barriers.