Collaboration for Research and Evidence-based Practice

Collaboration for Research and Evidence-based Practice

Introduction

Often, collaboration in research has been used as an opportunity or a door through which different professionals in different areas join efforts towards solving a particular problem through research. It brings a number of rich expertises together. It plays a great role in enabling evidence based practice as opposed to traditional approach which focuses on standards. A number of organizations give funds for the purpose of collaborative research (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, 2006). An example of such collaboration research is the one on the critical issues in emergency care which was funded by Emergency Nurse Association Foundation and Emergency Medicine Foundation. There are a number of benefits associated with this approach which include resource pooling, better positioning for research funding, and having an additional expertise (Engelke & Marshburn, 2006).

In interdisciplinary collaboration research, the role played by the advanced practice nurse as a collaborator and member of the interdisciplinary team is always administrative. They also take the leadership role since they have gone through training that has equipped them for the role. It should be noted that nurses have first hand information on clinical matters that are very vital in any health care research work (Women’s Health Initiative, 2010). Thus, nurses would play a critical supportive role for the interdisciplinary collaborative research team. The scientific findings from this research would be very vital for evidence based practice by nurses besides equipping them with research skills. The collaborative interdisciplinary research work is, therefore, very important for evidence based practice by nurses. This should include both emergency nurse and Registered Nurses. For instance, the findings of Women Health Institute (WHI) with regards to postmenopausal hormone therapy trials, which are evident- based. Change would require the collaborative support of nursing, physicians and pharmacists. This would greatly improve the quality healthcare (Engelke & Marshburn, 2006).

Reference

Engelke, K. M & Marshburn, D. M. (2006). Collaborative strategies to enhance research and evidence-based practice. J Nurs Admin; 36:131-135

Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (2006). Research and performance measurement. Retrieved from http://www.jointcommission.org/PerformanceMeasurement.

Women’s Health Initiative. (2010). Data set on dbGAP. Retrieved from http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/whi/.