National Study of Nursing Research Characteristics at Magnet®-Designated Hospitals.

Objective: To describe the research infrastructure, culture, and characteristics of building a nursing research program in Magnet®-designated hospitals.

Background: Magnet recognition requires hospitals to conduct research and implement evidence-based practice (EBP). Yet, the essential characteristics of productive nursing research programs are not well described.

Methods: We surveyed 181 nursing research leaders at Magnet-designated hospitals to assess the characteristics in their hospitals associated with research infrastructure, research culture, and building a nursing research program.

Results: Magnet hospitals provide most of the needed research infrastructure and have a culture that support nursing research. Higher scores for the 3 categories were found when hospitals had a nursing research director, a research department, and more than 10 nurse-led research studies in the past 5 years.

Conclusions: While some respondents indicated their nurse executives and leaders support the enculturation of EBP and research, there continue to be barriers to full implementation of these characteristics in practice.