Research Process as Leadership Development with Russian Nurses

The Russian nurses ended the first nursing research workshop with enthusiasm and the challenge to apply their new learnings to their practice situations.  A second nursing research workshop was designed to focus on application through small group work.  The nurses worked in groups to achieve goals of having them use the research process to design a study they would implement in their work settings and develop small communities to provide help and support as they implemented their projects.  The Russian and American nurses were divided into two groups according to practice backgrounds. One group was composed of nurses with practice and/or research experiences caring for maternal-child patients. The other group was composed of nurses with practice and/or research experiences caring for adults. The American nurses were nurse educators, clinicians, or researchers with an average of more than twenty years of experience. The Russian nurses were employed in a variety of settings: inpatient or outpatient units in maternal, child, adult or psychiatric settings, chosen by their employers to attend the workshops, and considered leaders in their health care agencies.  The workshop schedule alternated between group work with mentors helping them design their projects and short content presentations with worksheets.  The Russian nurses and mentors started with brain storming a question for a research project and worked through to compliance with human subjects requirements for two days.  The third workshop day the Russians worked in their groups to finalize their projects and the fourth workshop day focused on project reports with helpful critique and discussion of change principles needed for implementation of the new activity of nursing research in their work settings.  Learning how to do research empowered these Russian nurses and helped them enhance their capacity to provide leadership around practice issues in their work settings.