Research interest groups: Creating the foundation for professional nursing education, mentorship, and collaboration.

BACKGROUND: Research Interest Groups have been used to enhance collaboration within specialty health care areas. PURPOSE: This article was to demonstrate the impact of an organic model created by the TriService Nursing Research Program which became a conduit for collaboration across the three branches of Military Nursing Services to answer relevant research questions and support evidence-based practice. METHODS: Groups were organized around different specialty topics with a focus on education, mentorship, and collaboration. Modest funding, together with the development of an annual plan and report of scholarly activities allowed the groups to capture their impact and to strategically align efforts to support the National Defense Strategy and excellence in Military Nursing. FINDINGS: From 2018 to 2021, overall publications and funded grants for these groups increased each year despite multiple competing priorities. DISCUSSION: TriService Nursing Research Program Research Interest Groups demonstrate a successful, and easily replicable model to generate and disseminate research to inform clinical practice and health policy, both in the public and private sectors.

Theories of Health Care Decision Making at the End of Life: A Meta-Ethnography.

The aim of this meta-ethnography is to appraise the types and uses of theories relative to end-of-life decision making and to develop a conceptual framework to describe end-of-life decision making among patients with advanced cancers, heart failure, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and their caregivers or providers. We used PubMed, Embase, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) databases to extract English-language articles published between January 2002 and April 2015. Forty-three articles were included. The most common theories included decision-making models ( n = 14) followed by family-centered ( n = 11) and behavioral change models ( n = 7). A conceptual framework was developed using themes including context of decision making, communication and negotiation of decision making, characteristics of decision makers, goals of decision making, options and alternatives, and outcomes. Future research should enhance and apply these theories to guide research to develop patient-centered decision-making programs that facilitate informed and shared decision making at the end of life among patients with advanced illness and their caregivers.

Creating and sustaining a military women's Health Research Interest Group.

In 2008, four doctorate military nurse scientists representing the triservices (Army, Navy, and Air Force) identified a common interest in the health and care of all women in the armed forces. For 7 years, the team's shared vision to improve servicewomen's health inspired them to commit to a rigorous schedule of planning, developing, and implementing an innovative program that has the capability of advancing scientific knowledge and influencing health policy and practice through research. The ultimate goal of the Military Women's Health Research Interest Group (MWHRIG) is to support military clinicians and leaders in making evidence-based practice and policy decisions. They developed a 4-pronged approach to cultivate the science of military women's healthcare: evaluate the existing evidence, develop a research agenda that addresses gaps in knowledge, facilitate the collaboration of multidisciplinary research, and build the bench of future researchers. The MWHRIG has been a resource to key leaders; its value has been validated by multiservice and multidisciplinary consultations. However, the journey to goal attainment has only been achieved by the enduring commitment of these MWHRIG leaders and their passion to ensure the health and wellbeing of the many women who serve in the United States military. This article describes their journey of dedication.

Effect of a study map intended to support informed consent in transplant research.

CONTEXT: Research participants' informed consent is integral to the protection of human subjects; studies exploring the enhancement of standard informed consent processes have had mixed success in increasing patients' understanding of complex research protocols. OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of a "study map," a flow diagram of a research protocol, on research participants' understanding of research purpose and procedures. DESIGN: This study was an experimental posttest-only design using 30 research participants enrolling in a study of decision making and recovery among living kidney donors. Participants were randomly assigned to the standard care group (verbal description with consent documents) or the experimental group (standard of care plus study map). An instrument measured perceived and objective understanding, and the differences between groups were determined by an independent t test. DISCUSSION: The high level of comprehension in the control group made detecting improvements in understanding difficult. Objective knowledge and perceived understanding were positively related, suggesting the importance of periodically confirming comprehension with research participants during the informed consent process. Future research should examine the effect of study maps in patients with lower educational levels. RESULTS: Knowledge levels were high in all participants (mean objective = 3.7 on a 5-point scale, SD = 1.02; mean subjective = 9.3 on a 10-point scale, SD = 1.29). There was a significant relationship between objective knowledge and perceived understanding (r = 0.56, P = .001); however, the study map itself had no significant effect on objective or perceived understanding.