JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Nurses rely on current and relevant evidence to provide safe, high-quality care to patients and families. To do this, nurses need support to participate in research and evidence-based practice (EBP) activities. Despite the well-documented benefits of nurses' engagement in research and EBP, few actually do so in the clinical setting. This creates a knowledge-to-practice gap in which nursing evidence is not generated and existing evidence is often not applied in practice, jeopardizing the quality of care and patient outcomes.

Objective:

The aim of this scoping review is to identify and map evidence on factors that influence clinical nurses’ engagement in research and/or EBP.

Methods:

This review will be conducted in accordance with the JBI methodology for scoping reviews and reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist. Searches were conducted on April 28, 2025 in five health-related databases. Titles and abstracts, and then full-text articles, were screened by two independent researchers against eligibility criteria for inclusion. Eligibility criteria include research studies (i.e. qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods) and reviews that describe factors that influence nurses working in a clinical setting or an outpatient clinic attached to a tertiary hospital to engage in research and/or EBP activities. Studies must be published in English after 2010 in developed countries. Data will be extracted into a data extraction table adapted from the JBI data extraction instrument by an independent researcher and checked by another. The data from the included studies will be presented in tabular form, accompanied by a narrative summary.

Results:

Database searches identified 11,051 records, of which 5,544 remained after duplicates were removed. Screening began in May 2025, and full-text screening was completed November 2025. Data extraction and synthesis began November 2025. Results are planned to be submitted for publication summer of 2026.

Conclusions:

The findings from this scoping review will inform the development of targeted interventions and organizational strategies that enhance clinical nurses' engagement in research and EBP. This will better position nurses to improve the quality of care provided to patients and families, improving patient outcomes, and advancing the nursing profession. Clinical Trial: Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/5vwe9)