Consider the role of the nurse as an interdisciplinary team member in completing research
and using research findings to inform health care practices.
Using insights gained from visiting the Women’s Health Initiative
Discuss the role of the advanced practice nurse as an interdisciplinary research
collaborator and member of the interdisciplinary team obligated to co-participate in the
implementation and use of evidence-based practice.
End your discussion by providing an example of an evidence-based change that would
require the collaborative efforts of nursing and at least two other health care disciplines
and that would lead to quality improvement in healthcare.
Provide at least three citations with full references to credible nursing scholarly articles
supporting your definitions and discussion.
Collaboration for Research and Evidence-based Practice
Introduction
Often, collaboration in research has been used as an opportunity or a door through which
different professionals in different areas join efforts towards solving a particular problem through
research. It brings a number of rich expertises together. It plays a great role in enabling evidence
based practice as opposed to traditional approach which focuses on standards. A number of
organizations give funds for the purpose of collaborative research (Joint Commission on
Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, 2006). An example of such collaboration research is
the one on the critical issues in emergency care which was funded by Emergency Nurse
Association Foundation and Emergency Medicine Foundation. There are a number of benefits
associated with this approach which include resource pooling, better positioning for research
funding, and having an additional expertise (Engelke & Marshburn, 2006).
In interdisciplinary collaboration research, the role played by the advanced practice nurse
as a collaborator and member of the interdisciplinary team is always administrative. They also
take the leadership role since they have gone through training that has equipped them for the
COLLABORATION FOR RESEARCH AND EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE 2
role. It should be noted that nurses have first hand information on clinical matters that are very
vital in any health care research work (Women’s Health Initiative, 2010). Thus, nurses would
play a critical supportive role for the interdisciplinary collaborative research team. The scientific
findings from this research would be very vital for evidence based practice by nurses besides
equipping them with research skills. The collaborative interdisciplinary research work is,
therefore, very important for evidence based practice by nurses. This should include both
emergency nurse and Registered Nurses. For instance, the findings of Women Health Institute
(WHI) with regards to postmenopausal hormone therapy trials, which are evident- based. Change
would require the collaborative support of nursing, physicians and pharmacists. This would
greatly improve the quality healthcare (Engelke & Marshburn, 2006).
COLLABORATION FOR RESEARCH AND EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE 3
Reference
Engelke, K. M & Marshburn, D. M. (2006). Collaborative strategies to enhance research and
evidence-based practice. J Nurs Admin; 36:131-135
Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (2006). Research and
performance measurement.