Kirk A. Roberts and Dr. Joan Baldwin, Nursing
Research is an integral part of any profession. The profession of Nursing uses research as a means to improve patient care and enhance the quality of nursing practice. The College of Nursing also uses nursing research as a “thread” in the complete woven picture of nursing practice. Yet this “thread” typically has been reserved for faculty and graduate students. Undergraduate students have lacked the knowledge of how to become involved therefore have maintained that research is strictly for faculty and graduate students.
In a qualitative research project, using guided interview focus groups, nursing students were asked various questions pertaining to their understanding of research and involvement. The students were recruited through e-mail to locate the undergraduate nursing students who were interested in participating. After all informed consents were received, the focus groups were audio taped to that the replies could be later transcribed and analyzed. Although 25 students signed up to participate, 15 students actually participated in the focus groups. Focus groups were organized based on student’s time availability.
Five themes were derived from a basic content analysis of the focus groups: (a) Beginning Awareness, (b) Understanding, (c) Limiting Factors, (d) Becoming Consumers of Research, and (e) Making Suggestions. The data reflected the undergraduate students’ lack of knowledge of research and how to be involved. Beginning Awareness refers to the students’ first encounters with research. The students stated that they were first introduced to research in elementary, junior high and high school. These were basically literature reviews. In college, research papers were introduced, with some students participating in “research.” However, the main understanding of research was that research was literature reviews. Understanding refers to the comprehension of what research is. Students understood that research was exploring new ideas, but that mainly research was “doing papers” for classes. True research, in the eyes of the students, was only done by faculty and graduate students. The research was then put into statistical terms that could only be understood by other researchers. Some of the students thought that research was only a requirement they had to fill in the nursing program research and scholarship professional requirements. These conceptions limited the scope of understanding of the students. Limiting Factors refers to constraints that limit student involvement in research. Time is the most deterrent factor. The nursing program is rigorous in its structure and protocol, leaving little time for students to pursue other avenues of interest. Another factor is resources available to students. Students do not know how to acquire a faculty mentor and become involved in their research. Students are also limited in finding funding resources to help supplement their financial needs that research will most always require. Other factors include lack of understanding, which was discussed earlier, and lack of desire. Nursing students have the lack of desire to do research since there is no noticeable immediate reward for participation. Nursing students are prone to do activities which will help them finish the program and give them practical information to become professional nurses. Research appears to be an abstract subject that is tedious to do and time consuming. Becoming Consumers of Research, is the fourth them and refers to the fact that students could be taught that clinical research helps to improve the profession of nursing. If students become aware of “good” research, they can implement the new research in their practical nursing work for the improvement of nursing care. If research is reviewed and analyzed to see what is good and bad research, students will develop into consumers of good research. Hence the last theme is derived Making Suggestions. The students have suggested that: (a) Research be taught earlier in the nursing program, (b) student involvement with faculty mentor be promoted, (c) a guideline of how to begin be established with resources available for information and how to acquire funding, (d) classes be held to teach steps of research, and (e) students be taught how to be good consumers of research.
Students need to be instructed in the art of research and see the application in their profession. With their beginning awareness, students may understand the basics of research, yet the limiting factors discussed hinder their progress to becoming good consumers of research. Therefore it is suggested that the student suggestions be incorporated into the nursing curriculum to further nursing research from the undergraduate level on through practice.