VCCC Alliance: Essential Research Skills for Clinical Nurses

What you will learn

Overview

Having research skills allows nurses to work to deliver the best care possible for all the people that we care for.

This course introduces the fundamental concepts of research - what each nurse needs to know to influence and contribute to evidence-informed practice change.

Developed by the VCCC Alliance, the scenarios and examples provided are cancer-related. However, the knowledge gained, and skills developed can be applied to any clinical setting.

Designed For

This course has been developed for clinical nurses who want to establish or strengthen essential research skills.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the eleven course modules and self-assessment activities, learners will be able to:

1. Appreciate the importance of research skills for clinical nurses
2. Develop a research question to address gaps in clinical practice
3. Understand principles of research integrity and ethics
4. Understand the importance of consumers in research and the principles of consumer engagement
5. Recognise different research approaches and identify the most appropriate method to answer a research question
6. Appreciate that there are different ways of collecting and analysing data that need to align with a chosen research approach
7. Understand the principles of how to implement evidence into practice.

This course requires approximately 20 hours of study and assessment.

• Module 0: Study Guide
• Module 1: Getting started: an introduction to nurse-led research
• Module 2: Literature searching and reference management
• Module 3: Types of literature reviews and critical appraisal
• Module 4: How to conduct a literature review
• Module 5: The fundamentals of qualitative research
• Module 6: The fundamentals of quantitative research
• Module 7: The fundamentals of mixed methods research
• Module 8: Principles of qualitative analysis
• Module 9: Principles of quantitative analysis
• Module 10: Principles of implementation science
• Module 11: The next steps on your research journey