Are Working Nurses Enrolled in Graduate School Aware of Medical Librarians at Their Workplace? A Survey to Close the Research-to-Bedside Gap

Abstract

This article reports the results from an anonymous survey sent to working graduate nursing students. The survey asked about nurses’ awareness of medical librarians at the healthcare institutions where they work. Less than half of the survey respondents were aware that medical librarians were available to them at work. Less than half of the survey respondents claimed they consulted with a medical librarian at work or witnessed another nurse consulting with a medical librarian. The disconnect between academia and patient care is part of the 15-year research-to-bedside gap that exists in nursing. Medical librarians can help to close the gap.

Keywords:

• Evidence-based nursing
• evidence-based practice
• graduate nursing students
• nurses
• survey

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Data availability statement

Data associated with this article are available in Open Science Framework at (https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/GJH43).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Karen O’Grady

Karen O’Grady, MLIS, MAEd, AHIP ([email protected]) is the Nursing Librarian for the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science at the University of San Diego in San Diego, California, USA.

Gabriella Flores

Gabriella Flores ([email protected]) is a Research Assistant and a McNair Scholar at the University of San Diego in San Diego, California, USA.