Building nurses' capacity in community health services

This paper describes core processes, components, and insights gained from a research internship offered through the University of Ottawa, Canada. The growing demand for high quality nursing research requires the development and implementation of strategies for enhanced research capacity. A three-month intensive internship was developed as a main feature of a nursing chair held by the first author. The internship was deliberately structured around core processes of providing individual and group mentoring, creating opportunities for experiential education, and strengthening networks with researchers and decision-makers in health services and policy research. Building and sustaining individual research capacity was supported with strategies to address system challenges. If nurses are going to make their voices heard and increase their contributions to novel health service delivery approaches, building research capacity will be a core element. The internship may be a useful prototype for the development of initiatives to build research capacity in other settings.