A Delphi survey of clinical nursing research priorities in Western Australia

In 1989-1990 an investigation was undertaken to ascertain which problems WA nurses considered required researching. A modified Delphi technique was employed to obtain data from nurses in hospitals and health care agencies throughout the metropolitan and rural regions in the state. Participants worked in areas of acute care, mental health, paediatrics, gerontology, community health and domiciliary services and addictions. Problems identified were categorised into three streams; clinical, management and staff development. Respondents were required to assign a value to items according to their importance to nurses and to patients. They were also asked to indicate whether they considered there was an adequate research base relevant to each item. Results reported here are based on the 10 priority items identified in the clinical stream.