Research Participation, Findings Dissemination, and Associated Factors among Clinical Nurses in Nigeria

Introduction: Research is the scientific search for knowledge and it's a very crucial aspect of nursing practice. Previous studies show that nurses have varying levels of involvement in research and publications. Therefore, this study aims to assess the patterns of participation in research, dissemination of research findings, and associated factors among clinical nurses. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional design was used in this study and the study population includes clinical nurses randomly selected from University College Hospital and Adeoyo Maternity Teaching Hospital in Ibadan. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 206 randomly selected clinical nurses for the study. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. Descriptive and inferential statistics were done and the significance level was set at α=0.05 Results: Results from this study show that 90.8% of the nurses have been involved in research to enhance academic qualification, while only 42.4% participate in research related to their work. A total of 72.3% of them reported participation in clinical research, with 40.3% being the principal investigator. Also, only 25.2% of the nurses have published research articles with 59.6% of them having only one publication. Majority of the nurses reported unavailability of time, lack of mentorship, motivation, and rewards, as barriers to research participation. Conclusion: The majority of clinical nurses are involved in conducting research for academic and/or professional purposes studies, while only a few disseminate their research findings. Clinical nurses should be mentored, and motivated to participate more in research.