Noura AlMadani¹, Maryam Alkhalaf², Fatimah AlZawad^3,, Nouf Alharbi⁴

Nursing research can help address the healthcare needs of patients, enhancing their health and well-being as well as our nurses. So it is essential that nurses are encouraged to undertake nursing research to provide them with the opportunity to address the issues that could be seen in clinical practice. Moreover, the support of hospital leader in research has an important role in achieving research objectives, particularly with regard to identifying and documenting nursing sensitive outcomes. However, no formal studies had been carried out to explore the perception of healthcare leaders in nursing research across the kingdom. The aim of this study is to explore the level of support from hospital leaders towards conducting nursing research in Eastern province to be able to reach nursing department full potential in enhancing an organization's culture, and reshaping care delivery. A qualitative descriptive design is utilized. using purposive sampling for data collection. The data is obtained from an interview guided by the questions based on Kurger and Casey (2000) that include opening questions; introductory questions; transition questions; key questions; and ending questions. Interview was recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed with qualitative content analysis. This is conducted in three Ministry Hospital in Eastern Region with more than 300 bed capacity. Participated by the hospital directors, nursing directors and their deputy. The participants’ expressed perceptions were classified into three key themes: perception on nursing research, area of improvement, readiness in starting nursing research. Across the categories. The participant emphasized a on supporting nursing research. Despite of this many of the participant sought to provide awareness and education in conducting research for nurses to step in the right track. In the studies, among the issues expressed by the participants there is a positive attitude in supporting nursing research. However, nursing research is not taking into the priority of the healthcare organization. In this respect the result of the studies, indicate the need of improvement of nursing engagement in research through awareness and education to increase nurses’ participation.

nursing research, leader’s perception, support, hospital, healthcare