The Hope Research Community of Practice: Building Advanced Practice Nurses' Research Capacity

Background Clinical nurses have multiple challenges in conducting high-quality nursing research to inform practice. Theoretically, the development of a community of practice on nursing research centered on the concept of hope is an approach that may address some of the challenges. Purpose This article describes the delivery and evaluation of a hope research community of practice (HRCoP) approach to facilitate research expertise in a group of advanced practice nurses in one hospital. It addressed the question: Does the establishment of a HRCoP for master's prepared nurses increase their confidence and competence in leading nursing research? Method Using interpretive descriptive qualitative research methodology, five participants were interviewed about their experiences within the HRCoP and facilitators engaged in participant observation. Results At 13 months, only four of the original seven participants remained in the HRCoP. While all participants discussed positive impacts of participation, they identified challenges of having protected time to complete their individual research projects, despite having administrative support to do so. Progress on individual research projects varied. Conclusion Nurse-led research remains a challenge for practicing nurses despite participating in an evidence-based HRCoP. Lessons learned from this project can be useful to other academic clinical partnerships.