Nursing research across a large health care system: sparking nurses' clinical inquiry

In our journey to achieve Magnet designation, we sought to increase staff nurses' research participation and teach them about the research process by conducting a corporate-wide study, a blind taste test, using potato chips.

To compare 3 varieties of the same-brand potato chips for overall preference and perception of healthiness. We hypothesized that the potato chip the nurses liked the best would not be the chip they perceived as the healthiest.

For this institutional review board-approved study, nurses were recruited via (1) randomly selected units and (2) a convenience sample during cafeteria lunch hours. After informed consent was obtained, nurses rated each potato chip in a blinded manner, based on appearance, crispiness, flavor, saltiness, and greasiness. They indicated which potato chip they perceived to be the healthiest and which they preferred overall, and they completed an anonymous demographic questionnaire.

A total of 263 nurses participated, with 78% being staff nurses. Regular (full fat) was most preferred (37.6%), whereas fat free was least preferred (16%) and also considered the healthiest (45.2%) (P < .0001).

Nurses preferred the regular chip and chose the fat-free chip as the healthiest, proving our hypothesis that the preferred chip would not be considered the healthiest.

This study was easy, feasible, and helped promote systemwide nursing research.