NSG 3029 Week 5 DQ 2: barriers to nursing research
Discuss how you can use evidence-based practice in your own practice, the impediments to creating a program of nursing research in your clinical environment, and strategies for promoting EBP where you work.
Editorial process
Last reviewed · August 14, 2026
Barriers are local, and so are the strategies that work
Three questions, and the middle one determines whether the third is any good. Start with use: how you already apply evidence in practice, which is more concrete than it sounds — following a bundle, questioning a standing order that the current guideline no longer supports, changing a dressing technique after reading a review, taking a PICOT question to a unit council. Then the impediments, and this is where the post is won or lost. The literature has measured them repeatedly and they cluster: no protected time, no database access or no skill in searching it, difficulty appraising statistics, a culture whose answer is that this is how we do it here, physician or management resistance, no mentor, and no review pathway for a nurse-led study. Say which of those exist in your setting specifically, and how you know — a failed attempt, a colleague's abandoned project, a policy last revised eight years ago. One named local barrier beats a complete list.
Then make the strategies answer the barriers you named, one for one, because a generic list of strategies is the commonest weakness in this post. If the barrier is time, the strategy is protected hours negotiated into the schedule or a journal club inside an existing meeting, not encouragement. If it is appraisal skill, it is a librarian session and a critical-appraisal checklist. If it is culture, it is a small pilot on one shift with a visible result, because a demonstrated win moves a unit further than an argument does. If it is structure, it is a shared-governance council, an EBP champion role, or a mentor from the graduate programme. Close on the one thing you could start next month, naming who you would have to ask and what you would need from them, since the prompt is about your own clinical environment rather than about the state of nursing research in general.
Likely learning objectives
Inferred from the brief — check these against your own rubric.
- 01Give concrete examples of applying evidence in your own practice.
- 02Identify impediments specific to your clinical environment.
- 03Match each strategy to a named barrier.
- 04Distinguish structural remedies from exhortation.
Read the full question
Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.
Course-wide instructions that accompany this question
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS Discussion Questions (DQ) Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words. Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source. NSG 3029 Week 5 DQ 2 One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words. I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses. Weekly Participation Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately. In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies. Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work). Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week. APA Format and Writing Quality Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required). Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation. I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition. Use of Direct Quotes I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly. As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content. It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source. LopesWrite Policy For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me. Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes. Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own? Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score. Late Policy The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies. Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances. If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect. I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension. As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading. Communication Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class. Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.
Turn the brief into deliverables
- 01How you can use EBP in your practice.
- 02Impediments to creating a program of nursing research in your clinical environment.
- 03Evidence that those impediments exist where you work.
- 04Strategies for promoting EBP in your practice.
- 05A one-to-one link between each strategy and a barrier.
- 06APA-conformant citations and references.
Use, barriers, then strategies that answer them
How you already use evidence
Concrete instances rather than a definition of EBP.
Research and EBP are not the same
Generating knowledge versus applying it, and why the barriers differ.
Barriers in your setting
Time, access, appraisal skill, culture, mentorship, governance.
Strategies that answer them
Protected time, librarian support, journal club, pilot, champion role.
Building the structure
Shared governance, mentorship, an IRB pathway for nurse-led work.
What you would start next
One action with a date and an owner.
What the barrier literature already measured
Recommended databases
- PubMed Central
- CINAHL
- South University Online Library
- Institute for Healthcare Improvement
Search sequence
- 1.Search barriers to evidence-based practice among staff nurses and note the recurring clusters.
- 2.Find one study on interventions that improved EBP uptake and what they changed.
- 3.Read the EBP competencies to see what your setting is expected to provide.
- 4.Check your own unit's most recently revised policy and its date.
- 5.List local barriers before you look for strategies.
Reference shortlist
These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.
Nothing here is cleared for citation until you have read it.
- 01
The establishment of evidence-based practice competencies for practicing registered nurses and advanced practice nurses in real-world clinical settings
Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing (via PubMed) · 2014
What an organisation is expected to provide, which names the structural gaps.
- 02
Mapping Implementation Strategies and Outcomes When Using Evidence Based Practice Implementation Models in Nursing Settings: A Scoping Review
Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing · 2025
Which implementation strategies were actually used, and with what result.
- 03
QSEN: Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes Associated With Evidence-Based Practice (Table 9.4)
Nursing Management and Professional Concepts, Chippewa Valley Technical College (NCBI Bookshelf) · 2022
The knowledge, skills and attitudes a barrier is blocking.
- 04
Change Management In Health Care
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2023
Why culture barriers respond to demonstrated wins rather than argument.
Review before submission
Common mistakes
- Listing barriers from the literature without saying which apply locally.
- Offering strategies that do not answer the barriers named.
- Proposing education as the answer to a time or culture problem.
- Confusing research with evidence-based practice, which use different processes.
- Ignoring the institutional review and governance pathway entirely.
- Ending with encouragement rather than something actionable.
Submission checklist
- Concrete examples of EBP use appear first.
- At least three barriers are named as local, with evidence.
- Each strategy is tied to a specific barrier.
- At least one structural remedy is proposed.
- The research-versus-EBP distinction is handled correctly.
- Citations conform to APA guidelines.
Use this guide to plan and review your own work. Follow your institution's rules and read our academic-integrity policy.

Written by
Aaron Bishop
MA, Education
assignment interpretation and research-methods coaching across disciplines
Aaron leads the EssayCrackers editorial desk. He works on how assignment briefs are read — what a rubric is actually asking for, and where students most often answer a different question than the one set.

Reviewed by
Dr. Nathan Cole
PhD, Rhetoric & Composition
Argumentation and thesis development
Nathan teaches first-year composition and directs a university writing center. He reviews EssayCrackers guides for argumentative soundness and citation accuracy.