ISSUES AND INNOVATIONS IN NURSING PRACTICE Research information in nurses ’ clinical decision-making: what is useful?

Research information in nurses ’ clinical decision-making: what is useful? Aim. To examine those sources of information which nurses find useful for reducing the uncertainty associated with their clinical decisions. Background. Nursing research has concentrated almost exclusively on the concept of research implementation. Few, if any, papers examine the use of research knowledge in the context of clinical decision-making. There is a need to establish how useful nurses perceive information sources are, for reducing the uncertainties they face when making clinical decisions. Design. Cross-case analysis involving qualitative interviews, observation, docu-mentary audit and Q methodological modelling of shared subjectivities amongst nurses. The case sites were three large acute hospitals in the north of England, United Kingdom. One hundred and eight nurses were interviewed, 61 of whom were also observed for a total of 180 hours and 122 nurses were involved in the Q modelling exercise. Results. Text-based and electronic sources of research-based information yielde