Ayşe GELAL, Reyhan UÇKU, Hacer BULUT AKSOY, M. Aylin ARİCİ

Nurses’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Opinions Towards Clinical Research: A Cross-Sectional Study in a University Hospital

Purpose: To investigate the nurses’ knowledge and attitudes toward clinical research, and their opinions about clinical research nursing and the factors affecting them.Methods: Our study is a cross-sectional study. The data was collected in August 2015 via a questionnaire. 48-item questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge, attitudes, opinion, and to obtain sociodemographic characteristics of the nurses. Each correct/positive answer wasmarked as 1 point.Results: Among the 306 nurses selected by stratified random sampling, 291 (95%) responded to the questionnaires. Only 8.6% of the nurses were involved in clinical research, and 3.8% of the nurses had relevant training. The mean knowledge level of nurses regarding clinical researchwas 10.1±4.1 (max: 19) and the average positive attitude score of them was 5.8±1.7 (max: 8). There was a positive correlation between the knowledge level and the attitude scores. Nurses who have relevant training, experience, and also patients consulting about clinical researchhad significantly higher knowledge level than the others. More than 77% of the nurses had knowledge of the volunteer definition, the informed consent, and the confidentiality of the volunteers. Less than 50% of the nurses have knowledge about clinical research design, ethical guidelines, clinical trial regulations, and vulnerable population. The nurses who agreed on “the clinical research nursing should be a separate profession”and also shown their willingness to be assigned to clinical researches had relatively higher knowledge and attitude scores.Conclusion: Both knowledge and attitude scores of the nurses had a significant impact on nurse’s opinions corresponding to specialization, education, and participation in clinical research. The results indicate that staff nurses have only limited knowledge about clinical research whilethey are willing to be trained in this subject.

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