Program helps nurses get research experience

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A McMaster University program that gives undergraduate nurses the opportunity to
conduct research has received high praise from Ontario's chief nursing officer.

Debra Bournes recently lauded the pioneering efforts of McMaster's Nursing Health
Services Research Unit for its one-of-a-kind Undergraduate Student Research Internship
Program.

She said the McMaster program is creating opportunities for all nurses to lead their own
research studies, an area many nurses shy away from despite their knowledge of patient
care and the health-care system. Bournes was guest speaker at an educational
showcase of the research program hosted by the research unit at McMaster's University
Hall.

The internship program offers undergraduate nursing students at McMaster the chance
to be involved in research that focuses on nursing workforce and patient care issues.
Since its founding 20 years ago, the program has hired two or three student interns
each year.

At the event current and past interns described how their experience in the nursing
research unit enhanced both their studies and their career paths.

“Being exposed to different experts was invaluable,” said Erin Barwell, a former student
research intern who is now a public health nurse with Hamilton Public Health Services.
“Experiencing research while at university helped me see the link between research and
evidence-based practice.”

Current research intern and third-year nursing student Alex Pirvulescu said she is
incorporating skills acquired as an intern into her problem-based learning and clinical
classes.

A recent evaluation of the program, Preparing Tomorrow's Leaders Today: Investing in
Capacity Building for Nursing Health Services Research, found student interns valued the
opportunities the research unit gave them to collaborate with senior scientists, health-
care leaders and decision-makers, including the ministry of health, as well as other
students. This learning experience provided them with skills they continue to use every
day, they said.

The evaluation concluded the program is a “valuable and cost-effective” approach to
building research capacity and developing future health-care leaders and decision-
makers.

Andrea Baumann, scientific director of the nursing research unit, said she would like to
see other organizations adopt this model by building more programs with research at
the undergraduate level.