Title : Developing bedside nurses to lead research: A nurse scholar program
Abstract:
I n pursuit of nursing excellence and Magnet recognition, a clear deficit in the bedside nurse’s knowledge and expertise in research was identified. An academic service partnership with a school of nursing faculty was initiated to explore potential strategies to expand nursing research capacity utilizing a collaborative partnership to empower staff nurses to develop and complete nursing research studies. A six month Nurse Scholars Program was created with the goal is to increase the bedside nurse expertise in all stages of nursing research that will positively affect patient outcomes and staff engagement. The Nurse Scholar Program includes didactic content and hands on experience in defining a research problem, developing a protocol, and implementation of study. Participant feedback was utilized to restructure the format from an individual project to a collaborative research team approach. This design allows for exposure to the research process with less feelings of being overwhelmed and intimidated.
Take Away Notes:
• Learn how a creative collaboration between academia and acute care facility can promote nursing research
• Learn how a Nurse Scholar Program can:
• Engage bedside nurses in research
• provide structured education and experiences in all phases of nursing research from identifying research aims to drafting protocol, implementation, data analysis, and dissemination
• Increase organizational nursing research studies conducted
