Research excellence across clinical healthcare: a novel research capacity building programme for nurses and midwives in a large Irish region

Abstract

Background: A lack of support and research skills development has contributed to low research output by clinically based nurses and midwives in Ireland, including those in specialised and advanced roles. A novel research capacity building (RCB) programme was developed to address existing barriers. The programme was developed and implemented using Cooke's principles of RCB. Nurses and midwives participated from acute hospital, community, public health, mental health, older adult, intellectual disability, addiction and palliative care settings. Aims: This paper provides an evaluation of the Research Excellence Across Clinical Healthcare (REACH) programme from 2013-2016. Methods: Document analysis was used to evaluate RCB activities and outputs. Data were extracted from programme reports, conference proceedings, paper references, and workshop and conference sign-in/evaluation forms. Results: Individuals (n ¼ 17) and small research groups (n ¼ 4) were supported. Increased research capacity was demonstrated through dissemination of research in peer-reviewed journals, posters and oral presentations at national and international conferences. Sustainability was demonstrated by progression of participants to PhD (n ¼ 3) and research projects that remain ongoing (n ¼ 5). Skills development was facilitated by the organisation of workshops and

Research capacity in nursing: a concept analysis based on a scoping review

“…In the literature, research capacity in nursing was used both in clinical nursing contexts (eg, in the context of hospitals, clinical institutions, clinical nurse settings, etc),1 5 17 18 and academic nursing contexts (eg, higher education, universities, departments of nursing, research institutes, etc) 2 19–21…”

“…Individual competence (knowledge, skills and experience) for nursing research is a premise of the ability to conduct nursing research activities 22. Educational programmes, training, mentorship, academic-clinical collaborations, journal clubs, seminars, workshops, academic meetings, experiential learning opportunities and research facilitators were all approaches found in the literature for improving or providing the research competence of individual nurses towards achieving research capacity in nursing 1 7 17 19…”

“…The following articles provided data sources for concept analysis: Akerjordet et al 2012,27 Begley et al 2014,20 Corchon et al 2011,22 Crozier et al 2012,18 Edwards et al 2009,29 Fullam et al 2018,1 Goeppinger et al 2009,21 Gullick and West 2016,25 Hauck et al 2015,35 Jamerson and Vermeersch 2012,31 Kulage and Larson 2018,2 Landeen et al 2017,17 Lee and Metcalf 2009,28 Lode et al 2015,5 Martínez 2012,23 McAllister and Brien 2017,32 McKee et al 2017,7 Moore et al 2012,24 O'Byrne and Smith 2011,3 Renwick et al 2017,33 Torres et al 2017,19 Wilkes et al 2013 26…”

“…Research capacity has received a great deal of international attention in the nursing discipline 1 2. One reason for this attention is that nursing has gradually become an independent scientific discipline which requires its own body of knowledge.…”

Combining a Career in Clinical Practice and Research: The Benefits at Junior Career Level

“…The importance of role models to support junior clinical academics has been reported in the literature (Bramley et al, 2018;Fullam et al, 2018) and cannot be underestimated. The introduction of a mentorship scheme to support the HEE/NIHR ICA programme (HEE/NIHR, 2019b) reinforces the value that a mentor relationship can bring.…”