The contribution of nursing doctoral schools to the development of evidence 10 years after their establishment in Italy: An exploratory descriptive survey of former and current doctoral students' publications

Qualitative insights into the effectiveness of a targeted nursing research support program: Understanding and experiences of support recipients and providers

AIM

The aims of this study were to examine the effectiveness of a targeted nursing research support program for clinical nurses.

BACKGROUND

Nursing research capacity is increasingly essential to clinical nurses and currently relatively low. Therefore, effective and systematic nursing research training programs are urgently needed to improve the scientific research abilities of nurses.

METHODS

Qualitative research was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of a targeted nursing research support program. The program was formulated by considering the research training requirements of nurses and standard nursing research procedures, through literature review and group deliberations. The program was implemented for 973 nurses using a "plan-action-observation-reflection" learning cycle. The research outcomes achieved by nurses were evaluated and thematic analysis conducted to assess the perspectives of nurses and teachers regarding the research support program.

RESULTS

Nurses participating in the targeted nursing research support program collectively accomplished 195 research proposals and authored 332 original research articles. Nurses shared their rich experience as "understanding my needs and achieving my potential", including: (1) systematic procedures and coherence; (2) easy to learn, easy to use; (3) a sense of belonging and mutual support; (4) self-confidence growth; and (5) high expectations. Further, the experiences of teachers were summarized as "helping others is helping myself", including: (1) teaching is learning; (2) the happiness of being needed; and (3) the importance of scientific teaching.

CONCLUSION

This study evaluated the experiences of nurses and educators involved in a targeted nursing research support program and assessed its preliminary effectiveness. The findings revealed that the program, grounded in scientific and systematic research principles, was beneficial to both nurses and teachers. Based on our findings, we recommend that nursing educators should prioritize comprehensive, practice-integrated research training programs and create supportive environments, to effectively enhance the research capacity of nurses.

Being a nurse between research and clinic: What challenges and opportunities for a PhD-prepared nurse? Overview from an Italian paediatric hospital

AIM

To report a reflection on the role, challenges and opportunities for nurses with advanced education in research outside the academic field.

DESIGN

A discursive paper.

DATA SOURCES

We reported the case of an Italian paediatric research hospital where PhD-prepared nurses started to apply their knowledge and competencies in different fields, both in clinical and organizational settings. From this experience, an overview of the possible barriers and challenges that PhD-prepared nurses may face up within the hospital setting.

DISCUSSION

The application of PhD-prepared nurses in hospital settings could be an opportunity to advance high standards of quality of care in managerial and clinical areas and to create networks between highly specialized professional figures and different clinical-care realities.

CONCLUSION

More research is needed to explore how to apply the advanced competencies of PhD-prepared nurses within healthcare organizations to provide high-quality and safe care and services. This paper can provide insights for a reflection on applying and developing PhD-prepared nurses' skills and competencies within the hospital setting in clinical, research and managerial areas. This can enhance the effective application of highly competent nursing professional figures.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

No Patient or Public Contribution, due to study design.

Perceived barriers and enablers of nursing research in the Italian context: Findings from a systematic review

Introduction

The research capacity of nurses has been reported to be still constrained in several countries, and not fully implemented in its potentiality due to a large number of factors. Despite its relevance both for clinical and public health purposes, no summary has been compiled to date regarding factors influencing the research capacity in the Italian context. Therefore, the primary aim of this review was to identify the barriers and enablers of conducting research as perceived by Italian nurses.

Methods

We conducted a systematic review. The following databases have been searched: ILISI ® (Indice della Letteratura Italiana di Scienze Infermieristiche) MEDLINE-via PubMed, CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), Ovid, Open Grey, Google Scopus, and Web of Science. Eight studies met the inclusion criteria.

Results

The studies were mainly descriptive, with two quasi-experimental. A total of seven barriers and four facilitators of conducting research among Italian nurses were identified. The constraints were poor English knowledge, technology and library availability and accessibility, understaffing and lack of time, nursing culture characteristics, lack of nursing leadership support, scarce funding availability, and the bureaucratic ethical committee process. The facilitators were nursing journal reading, expert research team support, university and hospital partnerships, and international cooperation.

Conclusions

Given the small number and the high heterogeneity of the emerged studies, this systematic review provides an initial framework for the constraints that prevent, and the strategies that promote, Italian nurses’ participation/conducting of research projects that could inform policies in this field.

Participation of nurses and allied health professionals in research activities: a survey in an academic tertiary pediatric hospital

BACKGROUND

Involvement in research activities is complex in pediatric nursing and allied health professionals (AHPs). It is important to understand which individual factors are associated with it to inform policy makers in promoting research.

METHODS

A cross-sectional observational study was conducted to describe the level of participation in research activities over the last ten years of nurses and AHPs working in a tertiary pediatric hospital. A large sample of nurses and AHPs working in an Italian academic tertiary pediatric hospital completed an online self-report questionnaire between June and December 2018. Three multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to predict participation in research projects, speaking at conferences, and writing scientific articles.

RESULTS

Overall, data from 921 health professionals were analyzed (response rate = 66%), of which about 21% (n = 196) reported participating in a research project, while 33% (n = 297) had attended a scientific conference as a speaker, and 11% (n = 94) had written at least one scientific paper. Having a Master or a Regional Advanced Course, working as an AHP or a ward manager, as well as regularly reading scientific journals and participation in an internal hospital research group or attendance in a specific course about research in the hospital, significantly predicted participation in research projects, speaking at conferences and writing scientific papers. It is important to foster research interest and competencies among health professionals to improve participation in research projects, speaking at conferences, and writing scientific papers.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, we found a good level of attendance at conferences as speakers (33%), a moderate level of participation in research (21%), and low levels for writing scientific papers (11%). Our study highlighted the need to support participation in research activities among nurses and AHPs. Policymakers should identify strategies to promote research among nurses and AHPs, such as protected rewarded time for research, specific education, strengthened collaboration with academics, and financial support. Moreover, hospital managers should promote the development of research culture among health professionals, to improve their research competencies and evidence-based practice.

Mentors' competence in mentoring nursing students in clinical practice: Detecting profiles to enhance mentoring practices

AIMS

To describe the mentoring competence of clinical practice nurse mentors and identify different mentor profiles.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional research design, secondary analysis.

METHODS

An international, cross-sectional study design was performed in five European countries. A total of 1 604 mentors from 33 healthcare organizations participated in the study between 2016-2019. The Mentors' Competence Instrument (MCI), which includes seven sub-dimensions and 44 items, was used to collect data. K-means cluster and binary regression analyses were performed to detect mentor profiles and determine how various factors affect competence, respectively.

RESULTS

The K-means cluster analysis identified three distinct profiles: A (n = 926); B (n = 566); and C (n = 85). The profiles showed significantly different values (p < .001) across all seven areas of mentoring competence. In comparison with the other profiles, nurses in profile A were older, had more work experience and were more probably to have completed mentoring-specific training.

An overview of patterns and trends in nursing publications from the People's Republic of China

Objective

To explore patterns and trends in nursing publications from the People's Republic of China.

Methods

Using the Scopus online database, the author performed two searches in August 2019. The first search identified all items in the category of nursing affiliated to China, and the second search identified publications from China within one specific nursing journal. The author used a theoretical framework to provide a more in-depth understanding of patterns and trends within these items.

Results

The number of articles categorized as nursing, with listed authorship in China, within the Scopus database was 17,506. The majority of published papers were categorized as research. Top-ranking Chinese universities, such as Peking University and Fudan University, scored high in terms of several publications listed within the database. Although categorized as nursing, the most common source titles that are mostly high-ranking journals did not feature the high-ranking nursing journals. Identified authors were generally not affiliated with nursing schools. Focused analysis of one of the top-ranking nursing journals, the Journal of Nursing Management, featured top Chinese universities and consistent nursing authorship. Nursing authors were found to have lower h-indices than international nursing professors.

Conclusions

There has been a steady increase year by year in publications categorized as nursing from China since 2009, with the majority of published papers categorized as research. There is clear evidence of scholarly activity in nursing in China, both in the published literature and anecdotally in practice. However, nursing scholars need to do more to increase dissemination and ensure that nursing professors are leading and driving nursing research, although in a multidisciplinary context. There is also a need for increased exposure of Chinese nursing scholarship in high-ranking nursing journals.