BACKGROUND:Reflexivity is widely recognised as central to qualitative inquiry, yet there remains limited discussion of how researchers navigate it in emotionally sensitive research. AIM:This article critically reflects on the first author's experience of conducting an interpretative qualitative study in adult safeguarding in residential care settings and examines how reflexivity was enacted across recruitment, interviewing, analysis and interpretation. DISCUSSION:Drawing on reflexive journaling, supervision and ongoing critical self-questioning, we explore the emotional, relational and methodological tensions encountered during the research process, including uncertainty, emotional proximity and the negotiation of researcher identity. CONCLUSION:Rather than presenting reflexivity as a procedural requirement, we illustrate how it operates as an iterative, emotionally embedded practice that shapes ethical sensitivity and analytic decision-making. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:By offering practice-based methodological insights, this article contributes to ongoing methodological discussions about the enactment of reflexivity in sensitive qualitative research.
BACKGROUND:Clinical research nurses (CRNs) play a key role in delivering safe and ethical research within healthcare systems. However, the role remains variably understood, and nurses transitioning from ward-based practice may encounter role ambiguity, inconsistent induction and challenges to professional identity. AIM:To critically reflect on the transition from ward-based nursing into clinical research nursing and to identify implications for workforce support and professional development. DISCUSSION:A reflective practice approach was used, drawing on professional experience across respiratory and oncology research settings, including progression to a senior CRN leadership role. Reflection was informed by relevant literature on induction, professional identity and workforce development. Transition into CRN roles involved increased autonomy, altered working patterns and sustained patient relationships. Limited structured induction and mentorship affected early confidence, while organisational support and leadership visibility influenced role consolidation. Core nursing values remained central across settings. CONCLUSION:Clinical research nursing is an evolving clinical pathway requiring greater visibility within nursing education and workforce planning. Structured induction, mentorship and improved awareness of research delivery roles are important to support transition and sustain research-active practice. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:Healthcare organisations and educators should strengthen support mechanisms and increase exposure to CRN roles to enhance recruitment, retention and professional development.
BACKGROUND:With the need to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in research, extensive qualitative research is conducted with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) populations. Bilingual researchers can add value when conducting research with CALD populations. AIM:To initiate a call for greater involvement of bicultural bilingual researchers when conducting research with CALD populations. DISCUSSION:Bicultural bilingual researchers can be more sensitive to the contextualised values of CALD populations, can better apply an intersectionality lens in research, and are able to offer a more emic narrative than bilingual-only researchers. CONCLUSION:Bicultural bilingual researchers who are well-versed in multiple languages and the sociocultural heritage of CALD populations can help ensure the conduct of rigorous inquiry by using their unique linguistic and cultural expertise to build community trust, interpret data accurately, and eliminate hidden biases that others might miss in research. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:Bicultural bilingual researchers can better understand the cultural and implied meaning of participants' experiences. By providing unique narratives in specific contexts, they can offer more meaningful insights compared with bilingual-only researchers.
BACKGROUND:Innovative qualitative methods are important in nursing research for understanding perspectives that are often under-heard, including those of adolescents. AIM:This methodological article draws on a focused ethnographic study of 11 urban adolescents aged 12-18 years to examine the use of photo elicitation in nursing research on greenspace, health and place. Using disposable cameras, participant-led photo tasks, semi-structured interviews and integrated visual-verbal analysis, the study explored how photo elicitation supported adolescent engagement while generating insight into how young people perceived and used urban greenspaces. DISCUSSION:This article discusses the methodological and ethical issues that arose in the study, including camera training, timely return of cameras, assent and parental consent, privacy and image ownership, and the interpretation of photographs alongside interview and fieldnote data. It also reflects on the integration of emic and etic perspectives and on the role of reflexivity in analysing adolescent-generated visual data. CONCLUSION:Trustworthiness was supported through verbatim transcription, audit trails, NVivo analysis and team triangulation, with analysis informed by the approach of Braun and Clarke (2006) . Photo elicitation supported reflection, participant-led discussion and richer contextual understanding of adolescents' experiences. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:This article offers practical guidance for nursing researchers using visual methods with adolescents, with an emphasis on study design, ethical planning, and integrated analysis of visual and verbal data. These methodological lessons are relevant to adolescent health, community health and nursing research using participatory qualitative approaches.
BACKGROUND:Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) is evolving to address increasingly complex experiential phenomena. Existing multiperspectival designs often focus on single-context groups, limiting opportunities to capture relational and contextual diversity. AIM:To present a multilayered perspectival IPA design that brings together distinct participant groups to enhance inclusivity and illuminate diverse perspectives. DISCUSSION:The design progresses from individual accounts to dyadic perspectives, group-level insights and whole-group interpretations. This sequencing preserves IPA's idiographic focus while attending to relational dynamics. Triangulation across layers reveals convergences and divergences in meaning-making, and the dyadic lens captures how people make sense of shared experiences. CONCLUSION:Multilayered perspectival IPA offers a flexible, rigorous approach that enhances IPA's translational potential and supports the development of evidence-based, person-centred nursing interventions. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:Multilayered analysis can guide nurses in tailoring interventions to individuals and to the care contexts shaping their experiences, supporting more person-centred and context-responsive practice.
BACKGROUND:Evidence-based strategies for designing environments conducive to paediatric clinical research home visits are limited, particularly in low-resource settings. Child-centred methods are needed to support children's environmental preferences for positive research experiences. AIM:To pilot a participatory design mixed-methods study combining art-based play, art-critic artificial intelligence (AI) modelling and narrative elicitation to explore children's environmental preferences in a rural, under-engaged community, and to assess its feasibility and value for informing home visit design. DISCUSSION:Children aged 5-8 years ( n =86) participated using Design Your World, a storybook and art activity to encourage self-agency in research and care design in home environments. Iterative thematic analysis integrated visual and verbal data with cross-modal triangulation (AI and child health experts). The method revealed insights into spatial arrangements, colour preferences, imagery and sensory priorities that would be difficult to capture through conventional questioning alone. CONCLUSION:Art-based play integrated with narrative elicitation provides a replicable, child-centred approach to capturing children's environmental preferences in research-related home visits. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:This participatory approach models an art and AI-enabled triangulation method for child-led home environment design.
BACKGROUND:Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is a relatively new analytical method that is little used in nursing research. It is a comparative, case-oriented method that regards each case as a configuration of specific features. AIM:This article introduces fsQCA, demonstrating its value and limitations in clinical research. A novel application to nursing research is used to explain the rationale for fsQCA's selection, to demonstrate its application and to identify research contexts in which it is of benefit. DISCUSSION:The effectiveness of fsQCA in meeting project aims is discussed, along with some practical challenges and limitations. This highlights the need to pair fsQCA with a second method, process tracing, to meet all objectives. CONCLUSION:Use of fsQCA is advantageous in clinical research when the research question must allow for the possibility of causal complexity. Simultaneously, it can support generalisation by identifying case typologies for theory development and further explanatory study. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:Use of fsQCA is valuable when evaluating complex interventions such as protocols and guidelines, as well as in identifying best practice.
Background Doctor of philosophy (PhD)-prepared nurses are positioned to lead policy change, reform nursing education and integrate research into clinical practice. To prepare future nurse leaders for this role, doctoral programmes must include opportunities to build knowledge translation (KT) capacity. Aim This article presents a student-led initiative that explored the context of KT capacity development in Canadian PhD nursing programmes. Discussion The project involved an environmental scan of doctoral nursing curricula and a roundtable discussion with 15 doctoral students at a nursing school in Quebec, Canada. The scan revealed that formal KT training primarily focused on research skills, while informal activities centred on social networking. Conclusion The roundtable discussion highlighted students' limited exposure to KT as well as their interest in greater access to informal training and collaborative opportunities with researchers and knowledge users. Implications for practice These findings underscore the need to integrate KT capacity development into doctoral training to support future nurse leaders in bridging the gap between research and practice.
BACKGROUND:Early career nursing academics (ECNAs) often encounter challenges within the complex academic environment. Transitioning from clinical practice to academia comes with challenges because of the competitive nature of academia and the need to acquire new skills. Therefore, ECNAs require substantial support and guidance within this niche environment. AIM:To analyse ECNAs' reflections on their experiences of engaging in informal research mentorship. A descriptive case study method was used in which two ECNAs and their mentor provided a written reflection on their mentorship experience guided by the Gibbs Reflective Cycle. The written reflections were then thematically analysed. DISCUSSION:Three themes emerged from the research: 'the team', 'the feels' and 'our purpose'. These themes describe who makes up the mentor-mentee relationship, the 'right fit' of personalities, and the need for clear direction and expectations. The research highlighted that feelings of 'impostor syndrome' remain pervasive in both experienced and early career academics. CONCLUSION:This research adds weight to other literature supporting mentoring relationships in academia and research, and specifically within nursing. Mentorship was shown to nurture ECNAs and provide the guidance they sought. It is important that goals and expectations are discussed at the start of the mentorship to ensure the success of these relationships. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:Academic environments need to actively work to reduce impostor syndrome and foster collaborative as opposed to competitive research cultures. Mentorship programmes may facilitate a supportive transition from clinical to academic roles through validation, inclusivity and reflective practices.
Publishing in journals is an important responsibility of academics, researchers and practitioners. It helps us to share information about innovative and effective nursing practice. Evidence-based practice is vital to nursing, and health and social care, but research suggests it is less widespread than it should be. One reason may be that front-line practitioners do not always have the support, time and knowledge to search for and review evidence.
BACKGROUND:Qualitative research enables the exploration of human experiences, supports theory development and reveals the reasons behind complex nursing phenomena. The shift to virtual data collection during the COVID-19 pandemic introduced challenges, particularly the rise of fraudulent study participants, that threaten data integrity. AIM:This report aims to raise awareness of the concept of fraudulent participation in qualitative research in the nursing discipline and discusses actions that qualitative researchers can take to reduce or eliminate recruitment and enrolment of fraudulent participants. DISCUSSION:Through a case series presentation, nurse researchers share two experiences of managing fraudulent responses in qualitative research. Both studies encountered suspicious patterns, vague participant responses, repeated participation attempts and refusal to turn cameras on. In both studies, researchers lacked clear protocols to address fraud. CONCLUSION:Fraudulent participation highlights the need for standardised guidelines, proactive measures and institutional support to ensure research integrity in online qualitative nursing research. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:Implementing standardised recruitment protocols and providing training for nurse researchers are important steps in detecting and preventing fraudulent participation in qualitative research. Additionally, developing ethical guidelines and fostering collaboration among researchers will improve the integrity and reliability of research findings.
Background Although evidence-based practice reduces patient mortality, improves clinical outcomes and increases patient satisfaction with care, research is still not an integral part of a nurse's role. Having three nurses with National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) senior research leadership (SRL) awards has provided the catalyst to support nurses to use, deliver and participate in evidence-based practice through the development of a clinical academic research academy (CARA) within Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT). Aim To share the experience of developing CARA to provide nurses with the knowledge, skills, support and confidence to participate in evidence-based practice, innovation and research. Discussion The absence of organisational support for clinical nurses to engage in research-related activities is a recurring research finding and a major obstacle to promoting an effective research culture. In conjunction with other barriers, including insufficient time, lack of knowledge and skills, and limited authority, it can be difficult for nurses to become actively involved in research. Balancing clinical responsibilities, workload and research is challenging, and targeted strategies are required to address this. This article discusses how the development of CARA is supporting nurses to engage in research-based activities. Conclusion The creation of CARA has provided a focal point for nurses to engage with and develop their research knowledge, skills and confidence. Maintaining nurse managerial support will be essential for the growth and effectiveness of this initiative. Implications for practice Providing nurses with access to research support through an identified forum may increase engagement in academic activities and improve patient outcomes.
Background Research is one of the four pillars of nursing, with a research-positive culture in healthcare organisations being associated with higher-quality care. However, challenges in recruiting nurses to participate in research studies have been identified. Aim This article describes the strategies used to recruit nurses to a convergent mixed methods study. The study (Think Quit) explored the barriers and facilitators to discussing and making referrals to smoking cessation with patients in hospital settings. We discuss persisting recruitment challenges and provide recommendations for recruiting nurses to future research. Discussion This article considers the advantages and disadvantages of a range of recruitment strategies, encompassing digital (intranet, email), in-person (ward visits, recruitment stalls, word-of-mouth, research champions) and visual (posters) methods. Challenges to nurse recruitment in a smoking cessation study included time, opportunity and motivation. Conclusion Collective action from nursing staff, leaders and health policymakers is needed to establish how to overcome recruitment challenges and increase opportunities to involve and engage nurses in research. Implications for practice Addressing barriers to nurse participation in research is fundamental to the delivery of high-quality research and evidence-based practice, and the further integration of research as a pillar of nursing practice.
BACKGROUND:Deciding when and where to stop gathering data is a significant challenge for novice and even seasoned qualitative researchers. Qualitative data saturation (QDS) is a well-known concept, but some researchers may struggle to identify explicit indications and stages of saturation. AIM:To use the literature and the author's experiences to discuss possible benchmarks that researchers may find helpful when collecting qualitative data. DISCUSSION:This article considers how to operationalise data saturation, data saturation points, and quality and quantity of data in saturation, as well as some possible pitfalls. CONCLUSION:The concept of saturation is most effectively contextualised within a study design when inductive reasoning is employed. Deductive reasoning may prove beneficial to qualitative researchers when predetermined averages of previous study samples in a similar context are used as a guide. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:The author proposes effective approaches to QDS as a guide for future qualitative research.
BACKGROUND:Academic writing retreats offer nurses, midwives and allied health professionals (NMAHPs) opportunities to engage in research, enhance their research capabilities and produce publishable outputs. However, there are deterrents to running retreats, including time-consuming administrative loads. A toolkit to facilitate the organisation of retreats may therefore increase their number and quality by reducing administrative burdens. AIM:To report on the development and piloting of the Oxford Writing Retreat Implementation Tools for Excellence (WRITE) toolkit. DISCUSSION:The authors created a toolkit to facilitate the organisation of high-quality writing retreats for NMAHPs. They evaluated WRITE using a pilot and interviews with the pilot retreat's organisers. Their findings indicate the toolkit is comprehensive, user-friendly and adaptable to local contexts. It also reduces the time and resources required to organise writing retreats, which gives NMAHPs more frequent writing opportunities. They also found toolkit components needed clearer labelling and application forms for attendees should be more detailed. CONCLUSION:WRITE is a valuable resource for organising high-quality, reproducible, writing retreats for NMAHPs. Its availability and adaptability make it suitable for widespread implementation internationally. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:WRITE facilitates the efficient organisation of writing retreats, potentially increasing their frequency and accessibility. Its user-friendliness may lower barriers to retreat organisation, expanding opportunities for NMAHPs to engage in academic writing activities. This may lead to increased research outputs and scholarly contributions from this healthcare demographic.
