Establishing the research priorities of undergraduate student nurse work integrated learning in Australia

Introduction: Research priorities for staff who work in undergraduate nursing work integrated learning (WIL) has not been previously investigated. The purpose of this study was to explore and identify the areas of research priority within undergraduate nursing WIL, as highlighted by members of the National Network of Clinical Coordinators (NNCC) in Australia.

strong>Method: A modified Nominal Group Technique was utilised including silent generation, round robin, clarification and voting stages. The approach consisted of an online survey, face-to-face meeting, and hard copy Likert scale survey.

Results: 35 research priorities were identified by the online survey and provided to participants in a face to face round robin phase. Further research priorities were added in this phase to make 62 research ideas. Voting occurred and with the use of SPPS 10 top research ideas were identified.

Discussion: Six of the top 10 research ideas were focused on staff that support students during WIL including who supervises the WIL staff, learning their role and supportive student feedback. Elements of quality supervision are important for student support. Further ideas generated were mandatory clinical laboratory sessions, how to assess student’s fitness for WIL after a break in study, and the appropriate use of inherent requirements.

Conclusion: This study has identified research priorities of members of the NNCC within nursing WIL using a modified NGT research method. This has allowed for a comprehensive understanding of the research focus of WIL nationally which will support NNCC members to explore and investigate areas of research priority for WIL.