Paper
Friday, July 13, 2007
This presentation is part of : EBN Utilization Strategies
From Practice to Research to Practice
Sharon Bourgeois, RN, BA, MA, MEd, PhD, FCN, FRCNA, School of Nursing, University of Western Sydney, Sydney, Australia and Tracy L. Levett-Jones, RN, BN, ME, School of Nursing and Midwifery, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia.
Learning Objective #1: discuss outcomes of research related to the concepts of caring and belongingness
Learning Objective #2: consider opportunities for the dissemination of research findings into practice.

  “Research is not an end-point in itself”
The challenges of implementing research into practice are complex and varied and opportunities to advance new ideas into practice need identifying. Key issues for implementing research findings include relevance, fit and opportunity. In this paper, the authors’ assert that the primary purpose of research is twofold: first to give voice to what it is that nurses’ do; what they value and how they practice and second, to improve and inform practice.

By drawing on the findings from two doctoral projects the authors discuss a cyclical process where their research was derived from practice and then used to inform practice. Working from these perspectives, the authors present their areas of research, caring and belongingness, as illustrators for the discussion.

The first area of research - caring -  was analysed using Foucauldian archaeological analysis with three discourses of caring identified. Through these discourses, nurses speak and understand caring using statements that that have meaning for them and as a consequence affect the domain of practice.

The second area of research - belongingness - is a phenomenon that has intuitive appeal. In a mixed method, cross national study a relationship between belongingness and nursing students’ capacity and motivation for learning to nurse emerged as a critical and recurring theme. Given that clinical placements are specifically designed to facilitate authentic learning opportunities, this is a significant finding that has repercussions at both the micro and macro levels. Thus, the dissemination of such findings is imperative.

The authors will present an overview of research outcomes for caring and belongingness followed by a discussion about various options for disseminating research into practice. Examples drawn from both authors’ studies will be used to showcase how they have translated their research findings into practice.