Pioneering the Nation's First Nursing Research Fellowship in Robotics and Innovation

Clinical nurse attrition from the bedside calls for innovative professional development strategies that diversify skills and support wellbeing and retention. To address this issue, the largest health system in Delaware implemented the nation's first Nursing Research Fellowship in Robotics and Innovation using external grant funding.

Following a competitive application pool, four bachelors-prepared clinical nurses were selected from two hospital campuses across four diverse practice areas. This eight-month, paid fellowship grounded in adult learning theory combined weekly didactic instruction with mentored, hands-on research in a structured, collaborative, and independent format. The nurse fellows serve as co-investigators on an IRB approved robotics study. Longitudinal pre-, mid-, and post-fellowship surveys assessed knowledge acquisition, program experience, and well-being.

Nurse fellows demonstrated gains in research competencies and specialty areas that included protocol development, informatics, artificial intelligence, robotics, and techquity. All fellows reported increased job satisfaction, improved psychological wellbeing, enhanced professional confidence, and intent to remain at the bedside. Scholarly outcomes included multiple accepted national and regional conference abstracts, published commentary articles, and co-authorship of an original research manuscript.

This novel fellowship effectively integrated research education, innovation, and paid protected time to strengthen clinical nurses' research capability, professional fulfillment, and retention to the bedside. This program offers a replicable model for advancing nursing workforce wellbeing through immersive, mentored research experiences.