Exploring the research culture of nurses and allied health professionals (AHPs) in a research-focused and a non-research-focused healthcare organisation in the UK

Aims and objectives: To explore the research culture of nurses and allied health professionals (AHPs) in the UK and the influence of a dedicated research strategy and funding. It is important to understand the culture in order to effectively promote evidence-based patient care. The primary aim of this research was to explore the influence of research-focused exposure on the research culture of nurses and AHPs in the UK and to identify whether there was a difference in the research culture between a research-focused and non-research-focused clinical area (City and Riverside Hospitals). Background: This is a unique and novel study that explored and compared the research culture stance of both AHPs and nurses. Design: Methods: A mixed methods design was used in this study. Tools used included the “Research Capacity and Culture tool” as an online survey, three focus group discussions and five semi-structured interviews with senior managers. Focus groups included research-naive groups from both hospitals and a research-active group from City Hospital. Results: There were 224 responses received from 941 surveys with a 24% response rate. Descriptive statistics of the survey results indicated that there was a difference (p =.001) in the mean score of the research culture between City Hospital (5.35) and Riverside Hospital (3.90), but not between nurses and AHPs (p =.12). Qualitative data findings from the framework analysis were congruent and supported the survey results. The results provided empirical evidence to support a whole-level approach in order to improve the research culture. Both findings showed that there may not be any difference in the research culture between professional groups. Importantly, new evidence is presented to suggest that there were crucial communication issues which were hampering the research culture and there was a lack of support at the middle management level which needed to be tackled to improve the research culture of nurses and AHPs. Relevance to clinical practice: The study highlighted the need to include a whole-level approach in organisation to improve research culture and to include communication within the Cooke's framework if evidence-based practice is to influence the quality of patient care.