Promoting nurse practitioner practice through research: opportunities, challenges, and lessons.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Research
• Healthcare Delivery
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Nurse practitioners (NPs) play a vital role in patient care, particularly for older adults.
• Understanding the communication dynamics between NPs and older patients is essential for optimizing care.
• Research is critical for validating the effectiveness of NP services and advancing the profession.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore opportunities, challenges, and lessons learned during an NIH/NINR-funded study on NP-older patient communication.
• To identify factors influencing NP participation in research.
• To examine barriers and facilitators in the research process, including recruitment, retention, and institutional approvals.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of video-taped interactions between 30 NPs and 150 older patients.
• Documentation of research team experiences throughout the study.
• Review of existing literature on NP research and patient communication.

Main Results:

• Factors encouraging NP participation include recognizing research's value, prior experience, professional engagement, and institutional relationships.
• NP recruitment was aided by word-of-mouth, professional organizations, and nursing publications.
• Data collection faced delays due to NP attrition, scheduling issues, and complex Institutional Review Board (IRB) processes.

Conclusions:

• Streamlining IRB processes could significantly improve the efficiency of nursing research.
• Preliminary findings indicate positive patient outcomes associated with NP care.
• NP commitment to research is vital for demonstrating provider effectiveness and advancing the NP role in healthcare.