Planning a research project.

Abstract

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During this work, the first author was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia Public Health Postdoctoral Fellowship Number 997096 and National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia Travelling Fellowship Grant ID 235610. This paper is one of a series of short papers on aspects of research by Linda Shields and Alison Twycross You may have noticed something in your practice which intrigues you or which seems to be managed in different ways by different people. All nurses have an understanding of research so you will know that your question or idea could be investigated, but where do you start? Take a note pad and put down all your thoughts about the question. Forget about research at first; just write down what it is about the question that intrigues you. It doesn’t matter if what you write seems silly; if it relates to your question then include it. Two minds are better than one, so find a colleague to help you, perhaps someone with whom you work who has noticed the same problem. Once you have your ideas on paper, see if you can form a clear and concise question from them. Link ideas with lines, arrows, circles. You will find that patterns develop. Themes illustrating your ideas will emerge, others will show factors that may influence your question. Some will be outcomes you think you may find. Form themes into sentences, lists and points. You will find your research question there; it may need rewording, but from it you will be able to define the aims of the project. Once you are certain about what it is you want to investigate, go to the databases – Medline, CINAHL, Sociofile, ERIC, Psychlit, Cochrane and others to see if there is any research already done in the area. Read, read, read, and while you do so, think all the time about how the projects you have found relate to your ideas, if comparisons can be made, and note the methods used. If you find tools used by others that might help answer your question then find the author’s contact details so you can ask permission to use their tool. They may have used standardised instruments (questionnaires, interview guides, etc.) and details will be provided so you can find the same instrument. At this point you may need some expert help. Find someone who has a similar interest to you, or who can help you find an expert in your area. Don’t be afraid to ask colleagues in areas other than nursing. Many doctors are only too happy to help with research and some have been doing research for generations. Will the question best be investigated by quantitative or qualitative methods? Your research advisor can help with this, and there are some excellent research books. Polit and Hungler (1999) is one of the best. Your plan will begin to form and you must write a research proposal. Polit and Hungler (1999) contains detailed and simple explanations of how to do this. The literature you have found will provide background for the proposal, you have your question and aims already, and will have worked out confounding variables – remember those ‘influencing factors’ you wrote in your brainstorming sessions? Your methods will be guided by what others have done (the literature), by your expert advisor and by what you want to investigate. If you are using quantitative methods you may need the help of a statistician to determine how many subjects to include in your sample. Your trust or university may have access to a statistician. Next is the timetable and this will be governed by the question, the research methods, the sample size and by practicalities such as how much time you have. You may be able to apply for a grant that will pay for you to have some time off work, or perhaps pay someone to collect the data. Your ‘expert researcher’ will help with this. Finally comes ethical approval, for which every researcher must apply. To conduct research without ethical approval is tantamount to career suicide, as well as being ethically unacceptable. Contact your local ethics committee for their guidelines and application forms. Finally, once you have ethical approval (and this may take some months (Shields and Twycross 2003) you will be ready to go. Good luck! PN