Clinical research nursing pathways: The development and evaluation of a nursing research internship program using the RE-AIM framework

Natasha A Roberts; Elise Button; Jed Duff; Catherine Paterson; Michael Smith; Nicole Gavin

doi:10.1016/j.ijnsa.2024.100176

Clinical research nursing pathways: The development and evaluation of a nursing research internship program using the RE-AIM framework

Int J Nurs Stud Adv. 2024 Jan 9:6:100176. doi: 10.1016/j.ijnsa.2024.100176. eCollection 2024 Jun.

Authors

Natasha A Roberts^{1

2

3}, Elise Button⁴, Jed Duff³, Catherine Paterson^{5

6}, Michael Smith⁴, Nicole Gavin⁴

Affiliations

¹ University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research, Herston Rd, Herston, QLD 4029, Australia.
² STARS Education and Research Alliance, Surgical Treatment and Rehabilitation Service (STARS), The University of Queensland and Metro North Health, Australia.
³ Centre for Healthcare Transformation, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, QLD, Australia.
⁴ Cancer Care Services, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
⁵ Caring Futures Institute, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University, Australia.
⁶ Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.

Abstract

Background: In 2018 a Nursing Research Internship program was started within a major referral and tertiary teaching centre in Australia.

Aim: We aimed to evaluate the first 12 months of the program using an implementation science framework.

Methods: This was a qualitative study. Following ethical approval n = 20 semi -structured interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Participants included nurses with clinical, research and management roles who had engaged in or supported a Nursing Research Internship program. The Framework Method was conducted to analyse the findings.

Results: Key themes identified included 'What is the impact of a Nursing Research Internship program?'; 'Why do a Nursing Research Internship program?'; 'How do we do a Nursing Research Internship program?'; 'How do we sustain a Nursing Research Internship program?'. Positive impacts were identified for clinical nurses and their teams, for the hospital and health service, and for patients and families. Identified key components included protected research time, specialist support (including library, statistics, health economist, implementation scientist), regulatory support (ethics and governance procedures) and access to a computer and IT resources. The Nursing Research Internship program required support from nurse clinicians, nurse managers and nurse academics.

Conclusion: A structured Nursing Research Internship program supports clinical nurses to answer research questions identified directly from clinical practice.

Keywords: Clinician researcher; Evidence based practice; Implementation science; Nursing; RE-AIM; Research qualitative researcher.