Louise Rose
Canada
critical care; research; survey
''5. Međunarodni kongres HDMSARIST-a'' i ''8. Međunarodni kongres WfCCN-a''
Šibenik, 12.-15. travnja 2012. godine
Background: Despite the important role of bedside nurses in clinical research in the intensive care unit (ICU), little is known about how ICU nurses feel about research conduct or their contribution to the research process.
Methods: Self-administered, cross-sectional, paper-based survey to characterize nurses’ experiences and beliefs about ICU research in 5 academic ICUs affiliated with the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group. Prior to administration we assessed the survey for face and content validity, discriminability, utility, clarity, and test-retest reliability.
Results: Response rate was 67% (n=297/446). On average, ICUs were engaged in 16 studies and employed 2 full-time research coordinators. Most respondents were female (79%) with over 6 years of ICU experience (70%). Most had an undergraduate nursing degree (56%); 44% had completed an ICU certificate. While the majority reported completing a statistics course (55%), most had minimal to no experiential knowledge of research processes (67%). Few (20%) reported ever participating in research protocol development, data analysis, publication, or research committees. The majority (62%) had cared for a patient requiring study procedures ≥ 6 times but never or infrequently (< 6 times) completed data collection forms (61%). Most (75%) agreed or strongly agreed research facilitates improved care and that eligible ICU patients should be approached for research (61%), but only for minimal risk studies (76%). Most disagreed or strongly disagreed (76%) that ICU patients were too sick to participate in research. Few (22%) agreed or strongly agreed researchers consider practicalities of nursing care when designing studies and 40% agreed or strongly agreed that caring for study patients substantially increased nursing workload.
Conclusion: Nurses support ICU research and are actively involved in the care of research participants. Paradoxically, nurses remain peripheral to important research processes. Greater inclusion of nurses in study conceptualization and design and investigation of research-related nursing workload is warranted.