Promoting bedside nurse-led research through a dedicated neuroscience nursing research fellowship

OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that nurses would benefit from the fellowship model traditionally used to engage physicians in clinical research. The Neuroscience Nursing Research Center (NNRC) fellowship program was created as a model for engaging nurses at all levels of clinical practice to become active in clinical research. BACKGROUND: TheNNRCwas established in 2013 as a novel approach to promote bedside nurses as primary investigators in clinical research. METHODS: The NNRC developed 4 pathways to nursing research success: Research fellowship, studentnurse internship, didactic training, and research consultation. RESULTS: Fellows have enrolled more than 900 participants in 14 studies.Nurses have presentedmore than 20 abstracts at 12 conferences and submitted 11 manuscripts for publication. TheNNRC has provided research training to more than 150 nurses. CONCLUSIONS: TheNNRC program is successful in engaging nurses in research. It shows promise to continue to develop nursing research that is applicable to clinicians and thus improve patient care.