Sri Lanka Workshop 2024

Reaching the Horizons of Nursing Research in Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka

For Nurses and Midwives

In person workshop

Updated dates: 17-18 August 2024

Time: 8-5pm (GMT +5:30)
Location: District General Hospital Nuwara Eliya, Nuwara Eliya-Uda, Pussellawa Rd, Nuwara Eliya 22200, Sri Lanka
Language: English
Target Audience: Nurses and Midwives from the Nuwara Eliya District, Sri Lanka
Event capacity: 100

In Sri Lanka, evidence-based nursing practice significantly lags behind global standards, primarily due to numerous challenges in implementing a research culture among nursing professionals. Clinical nurses often face barriers such as limited research knowledge, language constraints, inadequate computer literacy, and heavy workloads resulting from staff shortages. The current nursing education system, predominantly based on diploma programs, does not mandate research projects, offering minimal exposure to research activities. As a result, only a few nurses with bachelor's degrees and mandatory research project experience are integrated into the government nursing profession.

The necessity for locally relevant evidence-based nursing is critical, as international research may not always apply to Sri Lanka's unique context. Recognizing this, KAATSU International University (KIU) Sri Lanka has been proactive in addressing these gaps by conducting research capacity-building workshops across the country. Despite these efforts, nurses in remote areas, particularly outside Colombo, still have limited research exposure due to resource constraints, transportation difficulties, and staffing shortages.

To bridge this gap, the proposed workshop "Reaching the Horizons of Nursing Research" aims to provide tailored training on research methodologies, ethics, and data analysis to nurses and midwives in the Nuwara Eliya district. This initiative seeks to empower participants to design and conduct high-quality research studies addressing specific challenges unique to their workplaces, ultimately enhancing their capacity to contribute to evidence-based nursing practices in Sri Lanka.

[image: Nuwara Eliya District of Sri Lanka]

Programme   Poster   Workshop Report

Workshop outcomes

Evidence-based nursing, as defined by the International Council of Nurses (2012), is “a problem-solving approach to clinical decision-making that incorporates searching for the best and latest evidence, clinical expertise and assessment, and patient preference value within a context of caring”. While it has become a global standard for improving patient outcomes, Sri Lanka faces significant challenges in implementing evidence-based practices. Factors such as limited exposure to research, inadequate training, language barriers, and heavy workloads hinder nurses' engagement in research activities. Additionally, Sri Lanka's nursing education system, mainly focused on diploma programs, offers limited research experience.Today, evidence-based practice is fundamental to nursing worldwide, enhancing patient outcomes and quality of care. However, in Sri Lanka, evidence-based nursing practice lags in contrast with global standards. Numerous challenges hinder its implementation. At present, there are limited pathways to empower nursing professionals toward the research culture. Clinical nurses are reluctant to engage in research because they lack the necessary knowledge and exposure to engage in research, facing barriers such as language limitations, inadequate computer literacy, and heavy workloads due to staff shortages. Moreover, the education system for nurses in Sri Lanka is primarily based on Nursing Diploma programs, in which it is not mandatory to conduct a research project and offers limited exposure to research. Only a very few nurses with a Nursing bachelor’s degree (having completed a research project component) and enough knowledge and exposure are absorbed into the government nursing profession in Sri Lanka. Evidence from other countries may not be directly applicable to Sri Lanka's context, as a result, utilizing such evidence for changing the nursing practices in Sri Lanka is not suitable. It emphasizes the need for our own research to acquire evidence-based nursing.

KAATSU International University (KIU) Sri Lanka recognized the significant gap in nursing research knowledge and addressed it by organizing a first research workshop for government nurses, made possible through the GRN workshop grant in 2023. This initiative led to KIU conducting numerous research capacity-building workshops at Nursing Training Schools (NTS) and several government hospitals across the country. Research experts from KIU traveled to various NTS locations, including those in more remote areas beyond Colombo, to share knowledge and engage with nursing students.

During these visits, it became clear that nurses in rural areas had far less exposure to nursing research compared to their peers in the more developed, urban centers around Colombo. These regions lacked the necessary resources and infrastructure to support research engagement, and many nurses expressed a strong desire for more opportunities to learn and participate in research activities. However, transportation challenges, with some nurses needing to travel distances of up to 160 km, and time constraints due to staff shortages, often prevented their participation in workshops held in Colombo. This situation highlighted the critical need to enhance research exposure and training for nurses in remote areas, fostering equitable access to research education and capacity-building opportunities across the country.

This second workshop “Reaching the Horizons of Nursing Research” aimed to address this gap by providing tailored training on research methodologies, ethics, and data analysis to Sri Lankan nurses employed at Nuwara Eliya district, an area further away from Colombo, in Sri Lanka. The workshop focused on specific research needs, providing practical guidance and support for designing and conducting research studies which enabled the participants to set up their Nursing research study addressing specific problems unique to their workplaces.

Workshop Highlights

• Objectives:
• Improve nursing research knowledge, methodologies, and ethics.
• Enhance attitudes towards evidence-based practices.
• Empower nurses to conduct high-quality research.
• Structure: The workshop featured sessions on research importance, problem identification, methodology, data analysis, ethics, literature reviews, and report writing. Nursing experts from KAATSU International University (KIU) and other institutions led the sessions.
• Attendees: 100 nurses participated, mainly from the Nuwara Eliya District, representing various hospitals.
• Impact:
• Pre- and post-assessments showed a significant increase in nursing research knowledge, with the percentage of participants scoring high in research knowledge rising from 28.9% to 54.9%.
• Attitudes towards research also improved, with 79.1% showing a positive attitude post-workshop, up from 51.5%.
• Recommendations:
• Future workshops should expand to other regions in Sri Lanka.
• Integrating interactive learning, peer collaboration, and mentorship is encouraged.
• Providing information on funding and research resources for low- and middle-income countries.

The workshop successfully improved nursing research knowledge and attitudes, laying a foundation for future capacity-building initiatives.