The Influence of Participation in an Intensive Care Trial on Health Practitioners' Knowledge of the Results-A Self-Reported Survey.

Abstract

Aim: The Intensive Care Unit Randomised Trial Comparing Two Approaches to Oxygen Therapy Trial (ICU-ROX) compared conservative oxygen therapy with usual care in mechanically ventilated adults in Australian and New Zealand intensive care units. Dissemination focused on publication and presentation, with no targeted approach. The current study aimed to investigate whether health practitioners from intensive care units that participated in ICU-ROX were more likely to report they knew the trial results and had read the publication than those from intensive care units that did not participate; explore whether there was a difference between doctors' and nurses' knowledge of the ICU-ROX results and whether they read the publication.

Design: Survey using a self-administered, quantitative design, developed for this study.

Methods: Convenience sample of 197 Australian and New Zealand intensive care specialist doctors and nurses.

Results: There was no difference in the knowledge of the study results between respondents from intensive care units that participated in ICU-ROX compared to those that did not. Nurses were significantly less likely to have knowledge of the trial results or have read the publication than doctors. The commonest way for doctors and nurses to get the results was by word of mouth at work.

Conclusions: Participation in ICU-ROX did not make a difference to knowledge of the findings. While the dissemination of trial results was extensive, it failed to adequately reach nurses, who play an important role in administering oxygen in intensive care.

Impact: This study has provided further evidence that nurses working in intensive care were unlikely to read the research results of an important study about oxygen management.

Implications for the profession: Researchers, unit management and nurse leaders need to ensure dissemination methods that will reach nurses are used for research findings.

Reporting method: This study followed the STROBE reporting guidelines for observational studies.

Patient or public contribution: No patient or public contribution.

Trial registration: This study is a substudy of a trial that was prospectively registered before the first participant was recruited: ACTRN12615000957594.