Collaborative nursing research—advantages and obstacles

Abstract

The experiences outlined in this paper are based upon the collaborative research efforts of nurse researchers in an academic setting and a clinical setting. It is apparent that intra-disciplinary collaborative nursing research is a necessity in a practice discipline such as nursing. While an obvious benefit of collaborative research is to provide a scientific basis for nursing practice other advantages and potential obstacles are presented for consideration. Differences in the missions of clinical practice setting and educational setting were the basis for the challenges in planning and completing this research project. Consideration of all of these factors and the development of methods to work with existing structures seems to have contributed to the successful completion of this project.