Group functioning of a collaborative family research team

Area of Science:

• Nursing Research
• Clinical Practice
• Collaborative Science

Background:

• Collaborative research teams offer numerous benefits for nursing research in clinical settings.
• Opportunities include networking, knowledge sharing, instrument development, grant writing, data analysis, and manuscript preparation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the functioning of a collaborative family interventions research team.
• To detail the formation, membership, and goal-setting strategies of the team.
• To address group influence on members and internal operations.

Main Methods:

• Descriptive account of a collaborative research team at a Midwestern university.
• Focus on team formation, member characteristics, and research focus identification.
• Exploration of group dynamics, member influence, and internal operations.

Main Results:

• The article details the formation and characteristics of a nursing faculty and Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) research team.
• Strategies for identifying research focus and aligning individual/group goals are presented.
• Internal operations and the influence of the group on its members are discussed.

Conclusions:

• Effective group functioning is vital for the success of collaborative nursing research teams.
• Recommendations are provided for developing effective collaborative research groups.
• Future research will explore group size and joint authorship in collaborative nursing research.