Our research area is heterogenous and not related to a specific research topic/field. The CooRI involve all the nurses who are dedicated to research at EOC at central and local level. Therefore, the research questions vary, considering the context in which they come from.
Research questions usually arise from needs identified by nurses working in clinical practice or holding managerial roles and are answered through studies, which can be carried out with internal or external resources and funding. Internal resources are mainly used to conduct ‘action
research’ studies planned and developed together with nurses involved in clinical practice and in the context of interest, aimed to explore a specific clinical or professional phenomenon in order to change and improve nursing practice. Such studies are ‘context related’ and therefore results can be transferred to similar realities, but usually cannot be generalized. Despite this, such action research studies are deemed important as they require a proactive role from professional teams and stimulate reflective thinking and critical review of their professional practice. Other studies conducted, especially those externally funded, tend to focus on phenomena of clinical or professional interest of a more general nature.
Nowadays we are mostly working on the implementation of Advanced Practice Nurse role in several clinical settings. Another topic in which we are focusing now is patients’ engagement, in the management of their own disease and as partner in nursing research projects development.
Our major activities are:
- To promote and support the cultural and scientific production by colleagues (preparation of abstracts, posters, journal articles, research projects. etc.).
- To collaborate with colleagues with managerial roles and colleagues from clinical governance for the collection and/or critical analysis of data, the dissemination of evidence and the development of internal guidelines.
- To develop and implement nursing research projects, using either quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods.
- To develop and maintain collaborations with national and international nursing research associations and networks
We are also involved in training courses on research topics to be offered to all EOC nurses, but especially to nurse specialists. This is critical to create essential synergies with clinical realities and the network of clinical experts and clinical specialists within EOC.
