Survey of R.T.s with doctorates: barriers to conducting research.

BACKGROUND: In today's health care environment, the need to attract and retain doctorate-holding radiologic science practitioners and provide them the tools and resources necessary to pursue professional research funding and publication cannot be underestimated. To date, however, there have been few studies on the possible barriers that interfere with both research and professional publishing among these highly educated individuals. A review of the literature reveals that the overall lack of research and professional publishing by radiologic science professionals holding doctorates can itself become a barrier in that low academic productivity is associated with a perceived lack of professionalism, lack of respect from external health professions and the lack of creation of new knowledge. PURPOSE: To characterize the barriers to publishing and research by doctorally prepared radiologic science practitioners using a national survey instrument. In addition, this study sought to measure the predictive value of select individual, workplace and leadership variables that could influence the ability of radiologic technologists and radiologic science educators to conduct research, publish their findings and seek grant funding for new research. RESULTS: We compared our survey findings for radiologic science practitioners to those of other health care groups in an attempt to determine which demographic variables may best be used to promote, rather than hinder, research, publishing and grant writing.