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
Boston, Massachusetts, USA and faculty and students from the
William F. Connell School of Nursing (CSON) at Boston College
located in a suburb of Boston. Massachusetts General Hospital is a
major urban teaching hospital with a busy ambulatory surgical unit.
The William F. Connell School of Nursing at Boston College provides
education at the baccalaureate, masters, and doctoral level as well
as an extensive continuing education program.
The hospital based ambulatory surgical nurses comprised about
50% of the research team. The ambulatory surgical nursing staff
included the nurse manager of the operating suite and ambulatory
surgical nurses. The principal investigator was a Professor in the
School of Nursing as well as a Nurse Scientist at the hospital. The
project manager was a PhD graduate from the school of nursing and
in charge of the preadmission unit at the hospital’s ambulatory
surgery suite. Four faculty co-investigators conducted the
orientation to data collection and nurse coaching. They also
collected data at one-week after surgery. The graduate research
assistants did data collection and nurse coaching at 72 hours. One
graduate student was assigned to do data entry. An undergraduate
research assistant prepared subject packages and filed materials.
The Nurse Faculty Director of the Research Center at the school of
nursing was a consultant on our project. The ambulatory surgery
nurses and the students received stipends. Faculty donated their
time.
This paper is divided into three phases: first is the methodological
problems of the planning phase of our research grant, second the
concerns during the implementation phase and finally the
dissemination of the results of the study.
Methodological Problems: Planning Phase
The impetus for this study was the restructuring of the health care
delivery system within the United States. Advances in technology,
improvements in anesthesia administration, and a move toward less
invasive surgery have all helped to decrease the impact of surgery
on an individual’s lifestyle and to foster recovery outside of the
hospital environment. Both the literature and previous studies led
by Dorothy Jones (1996, 1997) document the fact that patients
increasingly are being admitted, undergoing a surgical procedure
and being discharged to home the same day. The same studies
consistently describe problems that patients experience at home.
The study aimed both to improve patient care and to test the
theoretical bases for this intervention study. Therefore several data
collection instruments were included. These tools were:
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