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Research Application
Application of research in this model focuses on preparing nurses to drive the organization's strategic agenda through research and the development of processes that can support the ongoing continuance of those activities. This domain of the model requires persistence and patience on the part of the research leader/mentor due to the diverse research abilities of individual staff. Staff abilities in research design and analysis may range from very proficient to beginner levels and be anywhere in between. Importantly, research application needs to be situated in the backdrop of organizational and clinical relevance. In this model, the application of research involves research activities such as seminars, writing for publication, developing scientific posters, developing a research project, and getting a team together, the ethical considerations of research, translating research findings into practice, undertaking Higher Degrees by Research (HDRs), and the development and coordination of locally run evidence-based practice groups.
The development of evidence-based BPGs that are locally coordinated and run can facilitate research outputs with minimal contribution from the research mentor/professor (over time) as staff gain traction within their own speciality group. More specifically, the hospital where the RAAAM was developed, these groups were called BPGs. The purpose for including these types of groups in the model relates to a few considerations. Specifically, historically, hospitals may have one or two BPGs for the entire organization, where representatives are often unit/ward managers and other nurse leaders. The BPGs developed as part of the RAAAM were designed to be collegial groups that support best practice as part of excellence in service, generation of knowledge and research questions, managing risk, and ensuring patient safety while being located on each ward/unit. The evidence-based BPGs were implemented to decentralize the research activities from being mentor/professor led to being clinician led. The importance of having the BPG situated in each unit also facilitated the opportunity for staff to attend a BPG that related specifically to their own practice reality.
The roles/functions of the BPGs are to support the utilization of best evidence for clinical practice and to provide staff with a forum to develop activities in the generation of new evidence for practice. The vision for the development BPGs was for the groups to be part of a suite of multiple ward/speciality-specific BPGs and can be used to identify local clinical practice issues that require investigation/exploration and offers a means for staff to build their own capacity in undertaking research activities. With the support and endorsement of the ward manager, these ward/unit-based BPGs are coordinated as a type of ward “portfolio,” where leadership/coordination of the group is rotated annually, providing all staff with the opportunity to lead the portfolio. Leading a BPG provides staff an opportunity to undertake a leadership role within their chosen area speciality and can be a shared undertaking, for example, some BPGs have one, two, or three BPG coordinator(s). The BPG’s uptake of the BPGs across the participating site where the RAAAM was developed is 80% at the time of writing this article.
In addition, to further enhance research application and in consideration of time as a potential barrier to attendance to research seminars for nurses, express Research Outreach Ward-based Seminars (ROWS) were developed. ROWS are research seminars provided in the ward setting, usually facilitated at a time where there is the most nursing and/or midwifery staff on the ward. The delivery of ROWS is kept approximately 15 minutes, and in this context, is considered express seminar. The presentation times for ROWS are flexible, and different wards/units often nominate different times for the ROWS to be presented to their staff. For example, perioperative areas preferred the 7:00 a.m. time slot for ROWS before theater lists commenced, whereas wards preferred to have ROWS during afternoon handover times, when there was double staffing. Content delivered in the seminars is developed to be easily understandable for all education levels and includes take-away pamphlets/booklets to allow staff to reflect on the seminar. Terminology and acronyms are kept to a minimum, but where terminology was unavoidable, definitions were always provided (Edward & Mills, 2013).
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