Welcome to the first installment of “The Wind Beneath Our Wings: A Look At Nursing Research”!

That’s just what this column is about: looking at nursing research.

I’ll be looking for studies that affect us, our practice and our patients.

Nursing research is a new area of interest for me, and I expect this column will evolve as I become more familiar with the research process.

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Let’s start this series with an article in the Journal of Emergency Nursing that discusses ways to facilitate research in an emergency department. While the article focused on the ED specifically, the techniques could apply to any unit where data is being gathered while nurses are delivering patient care.

Suppose you are a researcher or a research assistant and your project requires you to observe and obtain the responses of nurses while they work. Even though the nurses agreed to participate in the project, they are busy and you are requiring them to take time from their duties to answer your questions and fill out your forms.

What can you do to keep the staff committed to participating?

The authors give three specific “strategies.”

• “Respect the staff’s workload.”

The authors monitored the department activity and waited to request questionnaires. They assisted the nurses with small tasks, finding that nurses would often approach them to assess whether a patient was a candidate for their research study.

• “Appreciate staff and recognize their contributions”

Ever meet a nurse who didn’t respond to chocolate? That’s what the authors used to show their appreciation for the staff filling out their questionnaires! Candy bars. They had nurses coming up wanting to join the project when that got around! They also discussed the implications of the findings with the staff at the end of the study.

• “Remind staff that responses are confidential”

It’s important that nurses know they can be frank in their responses in order to obtain accurate information.

Nurses are an integral part of the patient care experience. A good working relationship between the researchers and the staff allows improved data gathering and allows the staff to contribute to the ever increasing knowledge base of our profession.

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I’m proud to say that I have met one of the authors of this article (Garrett Chan, APRN, BC, PhD, CEN) and I work with another of the authors (Lynn Houweling, MS, RN, CCRN). Here is the full citation:

Chan, G. K., Houweling, L., Leet, T., Martin, C , Marting, T., Sandifer, K., et al. (2000). Conducting research in the emergency department: respect ED nurses’ workload and recognize their contribution. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 26(6), 626-627.