Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
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Medical Clinical Trials: the experience of finding a ‘hidden’
nursing and midwifery research resource.
Sarah Condell RGN RM RNT BNS MA, Research Development Officer,
National Council for the Professional Development of Nursing and
Midwifery, 6/7 Manor Street Business Park, Manor Street, Dublin 7.
Phone +35318825300, FAX +35318680366, scondell@ncnm.ie
Mary Bell RGN RM RNT BNS, Independent Nurse Researcher
7 Longford Place, Monkstown, Co Dublin
Phone +35312841491, mary.bell@dublin.ie
Context: Current Irish government strategy points to clinical
research as an area of future economic and knowledge
development. The government is providing funding to support this
development but, finance alone will not ensure the success of this
policy. The human resource required means that this scenario
warrants a response from nursing and midwifery. One national
nursing agency has established a project to meet this requirement.
Project aim and process: The project aims to develop guidance
for nurses and midwives on clinical trials research as a potential
career option. The career guidance document will be based on three
project phases: a literature review of the international experience of
the nurse or midwife’s role in medical clinical trials, a web search to
identify centres of excellence for site visits and a consultation with a
sample of nurses and midwives working in such roles in Ireland. The
information generated will be formulated into a guidance and
resource document.
Key findings and conclusion: A key finding from this project is
the ‘hiddeness’ of this particular professional resource. In this
paper, project process issues from this finding will be explored.
Examples include the searching of peer review literature for
empirical evidence highlighting problems on role identification and
title usage; the lack of a research focus on this particular role in
contrast to others within nursing and midwifery; the lack of
employment metrics to develop a rigorous sampling for the
consultation phase and issues around accessing a sample. In
addition, the paper will highlight how some of these process issues
were resolved.
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