%0 Journal Article
%T Developing a Culture to Facilitate Research Capacity Building for Clinical Nurse Consultants in Generalist Paediatric Practice
%A Lesley Wilkes
%A Joanne Cummings
%A Nicola McKay
%J Nursing Research and Practice
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/709025
%X This paper reports a research capacity building exercise with a group of CNCs practicing in the speciality of paediatrics in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. It explores the first step in building a research culture, through identifying the research priorities of members of the NSW Child Health Networks Paediatric Clinical Nurse Consultant group, and this forms the major focus of this paper. A nominal group technique (NGT) was utilised with sixteen members to identify research topics for investigation which were considered a priority for improving children's health care. The group reviewed and prioritised 43 research topics in children's health which were identified in the literature. As a result of conducting this research prioritisation exercise, the group chose two research topics to investigate: reasons for children representing to the Emergency Department and a comparison of the use of high-flow and low-flow nasal prongs in children with bronchiolitis. The research team will continue to mentor the nurses throughout their research projects which resulted from the NGT. One bridge to leadership development in enhancing patient care is translating knowledge to practice and policy development. This study leads the way for a group of CNCs in paediatric nursing to combine their research capacity and influence clinical knowledge. 1. Introduction The clinical nurse consultant (CNC) role was established in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, in the late 1980s [1, 2]. It is equivalent to the clinical nurse specialist role in the United States of America [1, 3] and United Kingdom [4]. Heals [5] states that part of the CNCs role is to improve clinical practice, facilitate change, disseminate evidence-based practice, and improve communication in and beyond the health team. There has been continued confusion about the CNC role [1, 2, 6]. In 2005, NSW Health reaffirmed the five domains of practice for CNCs in NSW as clinical service and consultancy, clinical leadership, research, education, and clinical service planning and management [7]. CNCs are required to dedicate their time evenly to each of these domains, however, a study by OˇŻBaugh et al. [1] found that within the research domain less than 60% of CNCs surveyed played a significant part in the development of clinical research. This trend was confirmed in a study in Victoria, Australia, by Bloomer and Cross [6] where a similarly titled role existed. In both studies, the CNCs cited lack of support and workload as reasons for not being able to enact all domains, (in particular, leadership and research), as
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/nrp/2013/709025/