Nurses in Practice Collaborate in Teaching Clinical Nursing Research

Abstract

It is our belief that one cannot teach clinical nursing research without the student's clinical involvement. At Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, we faced the problem of how seventy-three senior nursing students could be involved clinically in some type of investigation of nursing practice, with safety for student and patient alike. Nursing educators are convinced students need patient contact in a nursing role in order to learn to practice nursing. Many learning situations may be profitably simulated to meet specific learning objectives, but at some point the student must be faced with reality, the complex of variables in a life situation which cannot be duplicated by simulation, to apply principles learned previously. Desired student attitude changes accompany the solving of a patient problem through nursing. Through the response of the patient, through seeing predicted patient outcomes occur, and through communicating effectively with patients and colleagues, the student develops confidence. Positive reinforcement engendered in the situation rewards the student and increases her satisfaction in working with patients. We see this evidenced in a show of enthusiasm for the work at hand. We feel that one of the important objectives for students in an undergraduate course in nursing research is the development of enthusiasm for using the investigative process in looking at problems of nursing practice. The stated primary objectives for our course in nursing research are as follows.