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Nurse research: ‘let’s make it a normal part of our role’

Nurses’ employers should give them time for research, Nightingale2020 conference told

‘Demystifying’ research in nursing would boost the profession’s policy-level influence, says speaker at Florence Nightingale Foundation event

Embedding time for research in the workplace could help normalise it Picture: iStock

Nurses wanting to undertake research should be given time to do so during working hours, a nursing conference audience heard today.

Defence nursing adviser Sharon Findlay said normalising research as part of the nurse’s role would give the profession more influence in policy making.

The legitimacy of nursing research

Conference speaker Sharon Findlay

‘It’s about demystifying research,’ Colonel Findlay told the Florence Nightingale Foundation’s Nightingale2020 virtual event.

‘One of the things we are trying to do is legitimise the role of the research nurse. People shouldn’t be expected to be doing research in their own time.’

Col Findlay told her audience employers should make time for nurses to do research as part of their job ‘to galvanise that thirst for knowledge, that quest to try and close the knowledge gap’.

‘Everybody expects quality to be everybody’s responsibility – we need to do the same with research’

Bridie Kent, faculty of health, University of Plymouth

‘Then they get used to the taxonomy, the language, and it becomes less of a fear and starts to demystify that process,’ she said.

‘Nurses at all levels should feel able to advocate for change’

She said it is important to empower all nurses to feel that they can influence policy change.

She said online platforms were a way people can share ideas and advocate for change, and she believes nurses at all levels, including junior staff should be included in policy discussions.

Research is a concern for everyone in nursing

Fellow conference speaker University of Plymouth deputy director of the doctoral college, faculty of health, Bridie Kent said culture also needs to change.

She added: ‘We have really got to dispel the myth that research is for somebody else to do.

‘It is a bit like what we had to do with quality. Now everybody expects quality to be everybody’s responsibility. I think we need to do the same with research.’


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