Creating Interdisciplinary Engagement Through a Hospital-Based Endowed Chair in Nursing Research: The "Conway Chair Conversations".

Abstract

Although clinical nurses' involvement in research is a role expectation, efforts to engage clinical nurses in nurse-led research have had notably mixed results. These efforts have most typically been single discipline-focused (nursing), although nursing care is a collaborative, interdisciplinary practice. Adding an interdisciplinary strategy to multiple other efforts to engage clinical nurses in research may contribute to more nurse involvement. Here, we describe the use of a hospital-based endowed chair in nursing research to simultaneously engage nursing and other disciplines in a monthly dialogue about clinically relevant, research-related challenges and solutions. Outcomes indicate that the research-related dialogue among nurses and interprofessional colleagues would likely not have taken place without this approach.