A Journey to Action Research in a Clinical Nursing Context

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of Action Research (AR) approach in nursing. Methods: Participants were 64 perioperative nurses recruited from C hospital in Gwangju, Korea. The nurses were en gaged in the project through 2 cycles of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. A mixed-methods design was used to examine changes in participants and their knowledge management practice. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS 20.0 program and qualitative reflection data underwent content analysis. Results: During the project, participants developed standardized pre-operative checklists and opened an Internet Cafe to better manage their perioperative nursing information. At the end of the project, t here was a significant increase in nurses' knowledge management ( p =.015) and the rate of surgical material prescription errors decreased from 8.0% to 2.9%. Core AR project team members' teamwork skills and organizational commitment increased significantly (p=.040, p=.301, respectively). The main themes that emerged from the qualitative data were learning how to solve problems in practice, facilitating team activities through motivation, barriers of large participation, and rewarded efforts and inflated expectations. Conclusion: The AR project contributed to empowering participants to solve local p roblems. AR is a useful methodology to promote changes in practices and research participants.