Research-active clinical nurses: against all odds.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Research
• Clinical Practice
• Healthcare Innovation

Background:

• Limited research activity among clinical nurses despite their unique patient insights.
• Existing research focuses on barriers, neglecting facilitators of research engagement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a theoretical understanding of factors influencing clinical nurses' decisions to conduct research.
• To identify why some clinical nurses become research-active despite challenges.

Main Methods:

• Grounded theory approach utilized to explore the phenomenon of research-active clinical nurses.
• Interviews conducted with 26 registered nurses actively involved in principal investigator roles in completed nursing research studies.
• Constant comparative method employed for data analysis by two researchers.

Main Results:

• Conduct of research by clinical nurses is driven by clinical triggers, individual nurse characteristics and beliefs about knowledge generation, and supportive conditions like mentorship.
• Key factors include a specific patient-related trigger, the nurse's self-perception as a knowledge generator, and access to resources and guidance.

Conclusions:

• Clinical nurses can overcome constraints such as time, funding, and knowledge gaps to conduct research.
• Access to research mentors and a supportive organizational environment are critical for enabling research activity.
• Findings offer a basis for developing interventions to increase the number of research-active clinical nurses, leveraging their bedside insights.