Setting a Research Agenda to Promote Nursing Research

For which topic were research priorities identified?

nursing

In which location was the research priority setting conducted?

North America - USA

Why was it conducted at all?

Experienced clinicians recognize the value of research as the foundation for practice. Unfortunately, economic and practice realities have hampered nurses' movement toward research-based clinical practice. Limited resources are challenging nurses to target investigations on the most pressing daily problems that confront them. This article reports on the development of nursing research priorities in a pediatric hospital.

What was the objective?

to sensitize nurses to the research process and to determine the institutional priorities for nursing research

What was the outcome?

a ranking list of 15 research questions

How long did the research prioritization take?

18 months

Which methods were used to identify research priorities?

Delphi

How were the priorities for research identified exactly?

Step 1: Delphi round 1: survey asking participants to list up to five important burning questions, problems, or issues related to the care of pediatric patients and families, that they believed should be investigated, participants specifically asked to respond with explicit research questions or problems, 609 research questions submitted. Step 2: data processing: items sorted and grouped. Step3: Delphi round 2: survey with 100 questions/problems listed by highest frequencies in round 1, participants were asked to rate each item

Which stakeholders took part?

Nurses. Delphi round 1: 189 participants. Delphi round 2: 117 participants.

How were stakeholders recruited?

The setting for the study was a 313-bed tertiary care pediatric hospital. 634 full-time and part-time registered nurses who were employed in both clinical and administrative roles were invited to participate.

Were stakeholders actively involved or did they just participate?

Stakeholders were mere participants of the research prioritization process; they were not actively involved in the process.