Research utilization barriers for emergency medical technicians in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

IntroductionTranslation of research findings into clinical practice has potential to improve health care procedures, increase patient safety, and improve patient outcomes. However, low levels of evidence utilization in clinical practice have been widely reported. Anecdotal evidence suggests that this is also the case for emergency medical technicians (EMTs) in Saudi Arabia. This study aimed to examine the barriers to the utilization of research findings within this cohort.MethodsThe BARRIERS scale was used to gather data from a convenience sample of EMTs in Saudi Arabia.ResultsThe barriers most commonly rated as “great” or “moderate” were “Implications for practice are not made clear”, “The relevant literature is not compiled in one place”, and “The EMT feels the benefits of changing practice will be minimal”. However, when responses were examined at a subscale level, reliability, as measured by Cronbach’s α, was suboptimal (range 0.20–0.62).DiscussionNo similar study has been conducted within paramedicine to enable direct comparison of our results; however, the top barriers identified in the present study are also highly rated in some previous studies of nurse cohorts. The low reliability measures of the subscales may demonstrate the importance of context specificity when utilizing this scale and that further research is required to develop a reliable and valid tool for use within this cohort.ConclusionThe top 2 barriers identified indicate that there may be a need for improvement regarding communication of research evidence to Saudi EMTs. For future studies, translation of the BARRIERS scale may be useful. However, as these EMT courses are taught in English, careful consideration of cultural suitability and more subtle interpretation issues could also be appropriate. Once context-specific barriers are identified and examined, they may inform the development of effective strategies to increase the uptake of research evidence into Saudi EMT practice.

Croatian Registered Nurses - Perception of Barriers to Research Utilization: A Cross-sectional Study

“…Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify barriers to research utilization in registered nurses employed in University Hospital Center Osijek, Croatia. This study included significantly larger number of female participants (90.6%), which complies with many other studies [11], [13], [16], [20], [21], [22], [23], with exception of the study carried out in Saudi Arabia where all participants were men [24]. According to more than half of participants in this study, 27 BARRIERS items affect research utilization in practice to a moderate or a great extent.…”

The Prevalence and Utilization of Prehospital IV Access in Critically Ill Patients in the Emergency Department

“…Importantly, the utilization of the study findings and their implementation into clinical practice might be a challenge, as some literature highlights defects in the application of research outcomes into practice and policy [ 23 ]. This gap in evidence and clinical practice was discussed in several studies [ 24 ] that used the BARRIERS scale, which was implemented on emergency medical technicians (EMTs) to assess for this gap. The BARRIERS scale is a scale used to assess the perceptions of barriers to the use of research evidence in clinical practice.…”

“…The BARRIERS scale is a scale used to assess the perceptions of barriers to the use of research evidence in clinical practice. Samarkandi et al reported the top three barriers to be as follows, ranked from top to bottom: implications for practice are not made clear, the relevant literature is not compiled in one place, and the EMT feels that the benefits of changing practice will be minimal [ 24 ]. With that being said, Samarkandi et al showed that these barriers exist between different health professions, including paramedics, emphasizing the importance of assessing them based on specific situations or contexts [ 24 ].…”