This study investigated the extent to which one research finding, obtained through a series of investigations and reported widely in the nursing literature, was being utilized by nurse practitioners for the improvement of nursing practice. Based on the research findings of Nichols and colleagues on the oral mode of temperature determination, a questionnaire was constructed and administered to 87 registered nurses in the states of Massachusetts and New York. Only one response corresponded to the findings of Nichols and colleagues on how oral temperature is correctly determined. Contradictions between theory and practice, moreover, were cited.