Summary
Aims
This study explored the perceptions of clinical nurses about their research knowledge and experiences to highlight any gaps in nurse education in supporting research activities in healthcare organisations.
Background
Nurses' research activities have been encouraged by moving hospital-based nurse education into higher education institutions whereby there is a stronger emphasis on teaching and developing nursing research at both undergraduate and post graduate levels. They were further encouraged by the introduction of advanced nurse practitioner roles, in the hope to increase opportunities for research participation. Whilst nurses' research activities have been explored in many countries, nurses in Singapore where there is a strong emphasis on evidence-based practice have not been investigated.
Methods
A mixed-methods exploratory descriptive design, using a questionnaire based on open and closed questions was employed to obtain the views of clinical nurses about their capacity and organisational support in conducting research. The questionnaires were distributed to convenient samples who attended one of the 4 research seminars held on separate occasions between July and August 2011 in Singapore.
Results
A total of 146 nurses were recruited. Whilst nurses demonstrated strong enthusiasm in conducting research, this characteristic feature was not adequate for them to embrace a research culture in organisations. Active participation as co-investigators was not possible in healthcare organisations where skewed distribution of resources towards medical and nurse researchers was perceived.
Effective teaching is a complicated intellectual process involving continuous decision making to engage students. Cognitive coaching (CC) is focused on improving the teaching practitioner's cognitive performance. CC has been used with great success in K-12 and postsecondary education in the United States and internationally to improve both teacher's and student's classroom success but has never been used in nursing education. CC is an exciting avenue to pursue innovation, change, and research in nursing education.