Hello Abdulqadir

This answer is really just experiential and a personal observation. I was employed as a nurse practitioner, but was interested in research (and to a lesser extent, audit) for years. When I was doing my BSc and MA (I was working as a nurse practitioner while I studied for these), I incorporated modules that included or involved carrying out research, if I was able to. I then applied for a research training fellowship, and was successful, which allowed me to work towards my PhD, but I also worked as a nurse practitioner part time and only later was a whole time research student (for the last 2 years).

However, the people with whom I was working, although keen to keep up with the latest research in our field (bladder & bowel health) and from time to time, collect data for other peoples' projects, did not feel that they wanted to carry out research themselves.

So, in conclusion, from my own perspective, I think that some nurses want to be involved in research and others are interested in and aspire to other things . . teaching, leadership or putting their strengths into carrying out their current role and making things better for staff and patients. 

People work better if they are doing what they enjoy and feel they are proficient at; so I would advocate that the research is best carried out by the nurses who are interested in research. I then went back to my nursing role, but carried out a 5 and 10 year follow-up to my PhD project: Living with Faecal Incontinence'.

I hope this is of interest

Very best wishes

Mary  

 Dear Abdulqadir,  

 Dear Abdulqadir,

In my own experience is better to hiring nurses to do research, other ways the research is last thing to do. Always there is an emergency to solve and many task to do for patients. Of course, that nurses involved in patients care need to do systematics reviews, but if you want a deep research, you need to pay for it and contract nurses dedicated to think how to solve problems.

My suggestions:

Evidence informed clinical decision is the core to nursing care,therefore it may not be feasible to divorce nursing and research since critical decisions are need in routine nursing practice to improve quality of care.

The current situation is that nurses do participate in research at various levels ranging from data collection to implementation  and publication especially in nursing journals among others.Nurses have published individually as well as in teams.

On moving forward it is critical that nurses continue to reinvent themselves individually and professionally through pursuing higher academic levels/professional development so that they get better preparation for research work.

Looking at several papers exploring the perception of nurses on their involvement/participation in research,you realize how much nurses want to be involved in this field.

Hope that helps.

Thank you,

Ruth Muia

Kenya

Dear Abdulqadir,

From experience, it depends on the project. If it is a formal research study, then definitely it is better to have a dedicated nurse. I understand there might be few nurses with actual research experience, so one way to build capacity there is to have them complete the US National Institute for Nursing Research's basic research course, available online for free.

If the research is smaller projects more focused on quality improvement on the ward, then allowing nurses some time each week when they are not doing patient care is an effective way to accomplish those goals. Research participation can then become an incentive for the basic staff nurse.

Best, Allison

Nurses need to be trained in research to provide care based on evidence. However, the responsibility to propose and develop research is the researcher's responsibility.

I think this topic is a complex one.  My perception of research and nursing has many layers to it.  We need qualified nurse researchers to assure that any research performed is held to the highest degree of rigor.  Nurses involved in direct patient care need not only be competent in research utilization but in how to best apply it to patient care.  Further, it is the responsibility of academia to assure that nurses at all levels exit their programs with this knowledge and skills.  In nursing research itself, direct care practitioners may not be the best fit for conducting research given their main focus of provision of care.  But, having said that, being involved in research conducted and coordinated by nurse researchers is critical.  And, finally, whatever the roles nurses play, support is also critical to maintain the ultimate goal of improving the care for those we strive to help.

I believe that  clinical setting is very important factor when considering how a clinical trial is delivered.  If the setting is acute and highly pressured such as my experience within the ED then often for nurses clinical responsibilities will trump research delivery.  

Staffing with dedicated research nurses in the acute setting is a proven method of delivering multiple trials in complex settings.  However it is important to engage with the clinical nursing team and identify roles for them in the trial delivery.  The role of professional legal representative is one such role that exists within the UK and that has been found engage clinical staff with clinical research.

There are other challenges in the acute setting, four of which we have discussed in the linked article.

Conference Paper Research in the Emergency Department: Four challenges and solutions

I agree with much of what has been said above. My main points would be:

We need both models because:

- all nurses should be educated to be intelligent users of research i.e use as part of the required evidence based practice

- all nurses should be educated to have basic research knowledge and skills in order to function as nurse-researchers all the time. By this I mean that they should be both interested and able to question their practices and those of others, to reflect on what works and what does not and then seek ways to address nursing problems. Research - smal or large scale- should start in practice (most of the time).

- but as others have said, nurses with higher level research skills and experience should have designated research leadership roles in order to support and develop others, establish collaborations with research institutions such as universities, and so on.

As an Associate Nurse Executive of Education and Research who is funded (research) as well as someone who has worked in Academia, my first and foremost response is--IT DEPENDS. 

If you have a research strong center, that has strong funding, hiring research nurses who are certified research coordinators is your best use of resources.  Nurses who are certified RCs allows the PI to delegate multiple responsibilities and the RNs are focused on the study (ies) and the multiple duties that are needed to run the study (ies).

If you have a new research program or are only looking at research from an internal prospective (ie Quality Improvement projects), having nurses being integral partners in Evidence Based Care Councils/Committees, allowing RNs time to conduct research or Quality Improvement projects, and reinforcing that research/evidence based practice is a part of their daily job is also an effective as well as efficient use of resources.

All academic institutions should be teaching the practical aspects of Evidence Based Practice. How each institution implements it is unique.

perhaps efficiency is not the real issue: it is also the effectiveness of the study in question. Issues as data quality and completeness, adherence to informed consent regulations, study protocol etc do justify that knowledgeable people carry out the research activities.

Back to efficiency: what is a study fails due to misunderstanding or lack of knowledge?

- impact on patient? Sufferings go to waistbin

- impact on quality of research?

- if a study fails, impact on costs and funding?

Special thanks to everyone who has contributed to answer this question .. I do appreciate your time and valuable comments 

It's a good question .......A nurse must have research skills where ever she is working whether in hospital, educational institution or community.

Hi Abdulqadir, As a research nurse in a tertiary care hospital of northern India,I feel a qualified nurse culminated with research expertise would be the best fit to work as a research nurse in a given specialty and also nurses should be multi talented enough to transform best evidence into an answer and thereby design a well structured research question.inspite of enormous workload if nurses can opt sometime for framing out an research question,there is nothing best than that,or else best would be employing a dedicated nurse to research.

As an experienced Clinical Research Nurse of many years in the UK, I would have to say that having nursing staff who specialise in Research to coordinate trials is far more effective. This ensures that the nursing staff have the specialist knowledge and training to coordinate the trials effectively, ensuring that studies are run adhering to GCP guidelines and high quality of data collected is maintained.

Both are important, for both researchers and nurses care together can and should produce good research abstracted from reality.