Identifying nursing research priorities: general and neuroscience specific at an acute care hospital

As a result of economic and health care changes the role of the nurse continues to expand and research-based practice is changing its focus. Limited resources and staff shortages have revealed new areas for research study. Clinical nurses have valuable questions to share that can form the basis of future nursing research. The purposes of the study were to: (a) Determine the priorities for nursing research within a single acute care teaching hospital; (b) Promote nurses' awareness of the importance of research-based practice; (c) Facilitate the development of future nursing research. It was assumed that nurses who carry out direct and indirect patient care roles are "experts" and therefore, are in a position to identify what they see as important questions and in need of further investigation. Three hundred and sixty-six nurses (24%) responded to round #1 of the open ended survey and submitted a total of 912 clinical practice issues. Initially, issues were broadly categorized into clinical and indirect clinical themes in a series of subcategories. Round #2 was conducted to identify nurses' ratings of the priority of the final 123 research issues for future clinical research and practice improvement efforts. Results of the two rounds will be presented, including issues identified by neuroscience nurses. This information will provide a valuable source for additional neuroscience research at either the local or international level.