How-to Guides for First Time Staff RN Researchers, from Staff RN Researcher, Published Author

Friday, March 27, 2020

Frederick R. Macapagal, BSN, RN, CCRN
Coronary ICU, De Bakey Heart and Vascular Center, Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX, USA

Purpose:

This presentation aims to:

1.Share the experiences and knowledge gained by a first time bedside RN researcher with 2 completed research, multiple speaker and poster presentations at national and international nursing conferences/ published author to other potential staff RN researchers/ podium speakers/ authors.

  1. Enumerate the steps undertaken to start a research project, obtaining references from publications, forming a research team, disseminating results thru conferences (both oral and poster presentations) and publishing the research results.
  2. Share tips, mistakes (how they were overcome) and knowledge acquired by the author in the process, starting with an idea for research; obtaining management support for research project; obtaining funding, seeking PhD/ MD mentorship and Internal Review Board approval; gathering, analyzing and interpreting data, developing abstract and manuscript for conferences and publications.
  3. Discuss problems and pitfalls encountered during the research projects and solutions implemented to solve these.

Methods:

Almost all bedside nurses have great ideas for research topics- how they could improve patient care, nursing processes, work and patient related improvements. Bedside clinical RN’s are busy with patient care that there is little time to pursue other nursing interest. Their passion for improving and research gets overshadowed by the lack of time, lack of support from management, overwhelming thought of additional work and lack of knowledge on the questions of when, where, why, and how to start. Other reported barriers are lack of mentorship; lack of access to resources; poor understanding of statistics and critical appraisal; and inconsistent basic knowledge and experience with research (Fink et al. 2005, Kajermo et al. 2008). The bedside nurses are faced with these dilemmas, just like when the author first started doing research in addition to being a full time bedside clinical nurse. These barriers to nurses pursuing research opportunities often discourages and lead them to abandon their great research ideas. This presentation aims to help facilitate bedside RN’s interest in research using language that the average RN understands, in either poster or podium presentation.

Results:

The bedside RN researcher and author has multiple poster presentations at AACN NTI, Sigma research conference, and podium speaking engagements at ITNS and Sigma nursing conference. He has 2 publications on the research results and nursing care for axillary IABP patients.

Conclusion: Bedside RN's can be succesful at research and publication given the support, knowledge and mentorship.