Investigating Methods of Transferring Tacit Knowledge among Nursing Experts of Iranian Hospitals

Nursing tacit knowledge is a knowledge that is produced inside the mind of nurses and not saved in any databases. The main challenge of nursing knowledge management is transferring tacit knowledge inside the mind of nurses to the others- especially scholars and researchers. This study evaluates personal, organizational, and technological factors affecting the tacit knowledge transfer among nursing experts. It also assesses the most important ways of tacit knowledge transfer among hospital nurses. This study applied survey method. The population was all nursing experts of Bushehr governmental hospitals nurses which were 480 and finally 215 nurses were selected as the sample. Data collection tool included a researcher-made questionnaire. Descriptive and analytical statistics tests were used. It was revealed that the most important way of tacit knowledge transfer among nursing experts was participating in continuing educational courses. Findings indicated that the most important personal factor affecting tacit knowledge transfer was job security; most important organizational factor was rewards system; and most important technological factor was independent physical environment and educational technologies.