McCloskey Problem Statement - Essay Example

McCloskey reveals in the second sentence of her article that the main problem she intends to address is the fact that “a gap continues to exist between credible research findings and translation of those findings into practice” (McCloskey, 2008, p. 39). The need for continuous updating through the implementation of the latest scientific success is justified by rather a vague reference to Florence Nightingale. There follows a survey of empirical studies, all of which appear to show how a lack of time or pressure on financial resources has since prevented nurses from actually making use of past research in their daily practice.

This empirical part of the literature review focuses on the negative and does not cite work that identifies cases where research is successfully implemented in daily practice. Overall the quality of the sources cited in this article is generally good, although it is noticeable that most of them are American or Canadian in origin, with few from Europe or further afield.

There is some coverage of theory, including cultural theories, innovation theory and change theory, but this is extremely brief and again heavily focused on the difficulties and failures rather than successes. The author seems intent on pointing out previous negative results in order to justify new research but she does not explain clearly why this is the case, or what alternative proposals have been suggested to improve the situation.

In more recent studies there has been a growing emphasis on building on successes in this area. One very recent article (Leeman and Sandelowski, 2012) concurs with McCloskey’s observations about the underuse of interventions that have been demonstrated as successful and proposes that the reason for this may lie in a tendency in the literature to provide quantitative data, whereas more focus on qualitative data would of much greater relevance in the drive to encourage evidence-based practice. An interesting recent article on the much more severe barriers to the implementation of new research in China (He and Hu, 2012) advocates the setting up of a website for nurses which offers practical guidance in several languages. In Europe, post-graduate qualifications and the increased professionalization of nurses have improved the implementation of research (Watkins, 2011).

Conclusion
The literature review discussed above is a reasonable account of the barriers that have in the recent past delayed or prevented the implementation of recent research into nursing practice. It has some limitations, however, in its coverage of mainly North American and Canadian sources, with only a few references to European or other contexts, and in its emphasis on the negatives, rather than a more balanced account of both positive and negative effects. There is also no attempt to cover the potential of new information technologies, which is a weakness.