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Clinical Nursing Research Understanding and Implementing

December 14th, 2009 by admin | Filed under nurse


There are numerous definitions of research to be found in the nursing and allied healthcare literature, many of which centre around similar themes. An analysis of descriptions of research reveals that the generation of knowledge, using a variety of methodologies, is of high importance, although this is not always clearly related to potential outcomes. The difference that new knowledge might make to a practice-based discipline is not always evident, and it sometimes appears to be generated for its own sake.

The term ‘clinical research’ is commonly used in medical practice, but has not yet been accepted as normal within nursing. The main aim of clinical research in medicine is to identify best practice, with the purpose of adding to a general (generalisable) body of knowledge that can be shared with the larger scientific community as well as practitioners. Thus, clinical research in medicine has a tendency towards the quantitative end of the research methods continuum. However, not all research, or indeed practice, can be generalised. For this reason, nurse researchers have written at length about the importance of developing relevant and pragmatic approaches to research that reflect the real world of clinical nursing practice (see, for example, Rolfe 1998, Freshwater & Rolfe 2001, Holloway & Wheeler 2002).This has had the effect of generating a long-running debate between two seemingly opposing approaches to research. I do not intend to add to the debate in this paper. Rather, my aim is to raise awareness in readers of some pertinent areas for discussion, in order to enhance the capability of practitioners to use research skills in clinical practice.

Nursing research is often perceived as an investigation into nurses, rather than the care they provide. In reality, nursing research may reach into any sphere relating to patient care and nursing interactions, professional roles and workforce issues and, just as importantly, the development of nursing knowledge. Changes in nursing care resulting from high patient turnover, new demands in the community, altered arrangements in service provision and, not least, major developments in technology and pharmacology, have changed what is expected of qualified practitioners. Areas to be researched need to reflect these dynamic changes. McKenna & Mason (1998) maintain that the goal of nursing research should be to carry out rigorous, systematic inquiry designed to make significant contributions to knowledge. They add that such knowledge should impact positively on the physical, mental and social well being of the population. In addition, they argue that nurses have a series of key roles to play in health service research at strategic and operational levels, while retaining the flexibility to focus on issues and phenomena that are predominantly the concern of the nursing profession.

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