Attitudes about Conducting Research in Saudi Arabia
Sararaks, (2016) cited how undergraduate nurses respond to issue related to research in their studies. The article points out to show relationship between nurse’s attitudes to conducting a research. The prior research conducted by the author supports that a large number of nurses have negative attitudes towards the research work. The author shows that the negative approach to doing research can affect the learning of nursing. Besides, the article encapsulates that college students do experience some experience when handling research work (Al-Ali, Al Faouri, & Al-Niarat,2016The idea is that most of the nurses experience some challenges when handing research methodology and other related technical fields such as statistics. Most of the nurses incur some problems, especially when they want to do the statistical computation, which contains complex setups. All these challenges, according to the article, make nurses have negative attitudes towards research issues.
Another study carried out by Furaikh, Al Omairi and Ganapathy (2017) shows that there are various aspects which determines nurse’s attitudes towards research. The author shows that nurses have failed to realize that one cannot be a professional nurse unless he or she has research-related skills. The attitude from the nurses to the issue of research is real, and only a few numbers of nurses have positive thinking about the matters related to research. Aboshaiqah, Qasim, Al-Bashaireh and Patalagsa (2014) conducted a study and argued that for nurses to have positive attitudes then the learning institutions needs to provide adequate resources required. The current study carried out by the World Health Organization in June 2019 shows that nurses have negative to research if no clinical support is needed. The findings obtained by the WHO show that there is no mechanisms formulated to fight attitude on nurses. Meeting the requirements required by the nurses in healthcare can assist in embracing positive change (Brown,Lindell, Dolansky, & Garber,2015). According to, nurses ought to understand the importance of having positive attitudes to the issues related to research.
The two studies were limited to the collection of data around the local areas in the country.
Halabi (2016) conducted a descriptive research design to analyze how competency affects nurse’s attitudes towards research work in Saudi Arabia. According to the researcher, there were more than 244 nurses who gave various responses to the aspect of research. The findings of the study, therefore, include the overall attitudes displayed by the nurses in Saudi Arabia. The outcome indicated than there were more than 67% of the total population that gave some reviews on the issue of research in nursing (Giardina-Roche,& Black,2016). The t-test study carried out indicated there were more than 4500 nurses who are not ready to take any research course in Saudi Arabia. The study concluded by showing that high competency has positive impacts. Besides, the study that incompetent nurses tend to have negative attitudes towards research work. Moreover, the article advocates for the implementation of evidence-based practices and standards. Doing all these improves the attitudes of nurses since it educates nurses on new skills hence increased competency.
Demographic Factors Associated with Nurses’ Attitudes
On another hand Jahan, Al Maqbali, Siddiqui and Al Zadjali (2015) in their study cited that educating nurses on new skills increases aspect of competency thus helping nurses to have positive attitudes towards research-related issues. The authors of this study carried out a cross-sectional case study in Saudi Arabia (Grubb,& Arthur,2016). The research used trained nurses from Saudi Arabia ministry of health. The nurses argued that there are multiple concepts which hindered them from accessing suitable motive for doing research. Besides, the total number of nurses in Saudi Arabia gave some response deterring increased issues related to research. The participants included that lack of training, poor management support, and inadequate resources impacts negative attitudes towards research. Therefore, the article is on the point by revealing how nurses respond with different attitudes towards research work (Higgins et al, 2018). Lastly, the author concluded the literature by showing how to strengthen and come up with a collective voice to help nurses.
Nursing activities in the health care setting includes protecting, promoting, diagnosis techniques, prevention, and treating diseases, and also ensuring complete advocacy for improved patient care (Zhu et al., 2014). During their operations, nurses are faced with various challenges that affect their attitude. To carry out their services in a significant manner, nurses need a high level of competency skills and be able to control their attitude regarding patients, work, and the entire health care system (Hofmeister, 2007). The following demographic factors affect the work of the nurses either directly or indirectly. Therefore, they are the main determinants of the successful clinical practice of nurses and the improvement of public health care.
Age
Age is an essential variable in impacting in the nurse’s attitude towards carrying research in Asser Central hospital. According to Basudan, (2019) it is imperative to note that knowledge and skills increase with age. However, the young nurses are goal and objective oriented to improve their working experiences and diversify their skills (Karman, Kool,Poslawsky, & van Meijel,2015). This means that nurses who are older in the hospital setting have a less positive attitude towards conducting research. The older nurses usually carry out minimal research activities, less knowledgeable about the topic, and less interested in carrying out a future study.
As stated by Jahan, Al Maqbali,Siddiqui & Al Zadjali,(2015), it is evident that the female gender has an increased negative correlation towards all the existing subscales of future clinical research, especially at Asser central hospital in Saudi Arabia. This indicates that female nurses practice usually carry out minimal research. They also have a less positive attitude and decrease knowledge regarding fundamental analysis as compared to their male counterparts (Nia,Lehto, Ebadi,& Peyrovi,2016).
Gap in Knowledge
Married nurses are associated with a low attitude towards research activities. They indicate that they have limited time to engage in research activities as compared to unmarried nurses.
Education level
According to Watson,(2005) it was seen that those individual nurses with MSc degree had increased positive attitude. They also reported maximum levels of knowledge and clinical skills as compared to nurses with BSc education qualifications. Generally, nurses who hold a master’s degree curricula benefit from more specialized courses regarding nursing research methodology. They can apply the given stages of research and learn how they can conduct nursing practice. They have a positive attitude as they possess the ability to effectively implement plans, solve significant clinical problems, perform proposals on integrated literature review, read and interpret research studies (Birks, Francis, Chapman, Mills & Porter, 2009).
Income level
A nurse with financial instability is associated with a low attitude towards research. This is because a lack of resources brings about the unavailability of research tools (Nowacka, Piskorz, Wolfshaut-Wolak, Pi?tek & Gniadek, 2018). This lowers the optimum performance and application of quality accreditation standards in research work. Low-income influences negatively on nurse attitude and knowledge.
Job position
Deave (2005). Indicates that the job position of nurses affects their attitude towards research. Nurses in low positions are less motivated to carry out extensive research. They literally suffer from workload barriers and complain of insufficient time to carry out research and search for evidence in public health practice. Nurses working in ICU have higher levels of knowledge and attitude that those working in the general wards (Ung, Salamonson, Hu,& Gallego,2016).
Years working in nursing
Previous years of working and participation in research in Asser central hospital was negatively linked with the clinical practice (Park, Usher, & Foster, 2014). This means that when nurse has more working years in the past, they will be associated with decreased attitude and participation in research (Yontz, Zinn, & Schumacher,2015).
Gaps in knowledge
In the study, the generalization of the findings are quite limited. Each study tries to compare how competency and demographic variable determines nurse’s attitudes towards research work. The nature of the sample population is very homogenous since the survey was only carried in one hospital setting’s research sample was also selected in a limited manner (Watson, 2005). In the future, there is a need to address all the attitudes of a nurse in other regions and settings. There is also a need to discuss the importance of research in clinical practice. It is also critical to include the role of administrators and managers in influencing the attitude of nurses in the clinical practice.
References
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