Introduction: Development and application of nursing knowledge is necessary to provide a safe and high quality of patient care. The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge sources used in nursing practice.
Methods and Materials: In this descriptive study, 100 nurses from different wards of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and Health Services educational hospitals were selected and completed a 2- parts knowledge sources questionnaire including demographic (6 questions) and knowledge sources questions (16 questions). Content validity and test–retest (0.8) methods were used for measuring validity and reliability of the questionnaire respectively. Descriptive statistics and correlation tests were used for analysis of data by SPSS (v.14) software.
Findings: The results showed that most important knowledge sources used in nursing practice were personal experience of nursing patients/clients (39%), what has worked for years and information that learned in nursing school (35%). The least important knowledge source used in nursing practice was articles published in nursing journals (2%).
Conclusion: Due to increase of knowledge and research in nursing, use of new knowledge, in nursing practice is necessary. This will reduce gap between theory and practice and also improve quality of patient care.