Identifying clinical nursing research priorities

This paper describes a project conducted by a nursing research committee to identify and prioritize nursing research questions or topics that are most significant to the welfare of patients at a Southern university hospital. Ninety-seven nurses representing clinical staff, administration, and education were invited to participate in three rounds using the Delphi survey technique. Group consensus was reached on priority areas for nursing research at this particular institution. The purpose of this article is to outline the process of developing the project and discuss recommendations resulting from the survey.