LAUSR

THROUGHOUT THE AGES, research has been used to advance the profession of nursing. For instance, Florence Nightingale was involved in clinical research when she kept systematic records of patient outcomes. The importance of engaging clinical nurses in research is becoming more apparent. When nurses directly experience research, they may become more acutely aware of the need for evidence-based practice (EBP). Research makes nurses agents of positive change. The whole process builds nurses’ confidence and stirs up something deep inside them to question current practices and seek out new challenges. New information discovered in the research process becomes the source of changes to EBP. Participating in research is a gratifying experience because nurses can witness how an idea is implemented and can see the changes that result. The research process summons professional growth, lifelong learning, and confidence to move up the clinical ladder. We used a research study about managing post-op nausea to engage clinical nurses in research on a cardiovascular step-down unit. (For a full description of this study, see “Inhaled Peppermint Oil for Postop Nausea in Patients Undergoing Cardiac Surgery” in the July issue of Nursing2016.) For many, this was their first involvement in conducting nursing research. This article focuses on the strategies employed to engage nurses in clinical research. Piquing interest An initiative to study the use of peppermint oil inhalers to decrease post-op nausea began with a poster critiquing Anderson and Gross’s research article “Aromatherapy with Peppermint, Isopropyl Alcohol, or Placebo Is Equally Effective in Relieving Postoperative Nausea.” The poster was entered into a contest during Nurses Week, and then posted on the cardiovascular critical care complex (CVCCC), which is our open-heart surgery ICU and the open-heart surgery step-down unit, to provide an example of how to critique a research article. It also informed nurses about the use of peppermint oil for post-op nausea. This drew the interest of nurses in the step-down section of CVCCC, and they began asking if this approach would be appropriate for their patients undergoing open-heart surgery. Due to the interest generated, a team of step-down unit nurses formed to study the effect of peppermint oil on nausea in post-op cardiac surgery patients. The intent of the research team was to develop a straightforward research project that would be exciting and could involve the entire nursing staff. The research team realized this was a golden opportunity to mentor nursing staff new to research and purposefully designed the study with this in mind. Past research experiences had shown that complex protocols are difficult to implement. Knowing this, the research protocol algorithm was structured to be user-friendly. This approach decreased everyone’s apprehension about research and encouraged greater staff participation in implementing the study. A quantitative approach was purposefully chosen over a qualitative approach because more staff could be involved in both data collection and analysis. The protocol for the study was similar to that of Anderson and Gross except that inhalers were used instead of gauze soaked with peppermint oil. A literature review found that no research studies on using peppermint oil to combat nausea in the cardiac surgical population had been published. The study was approved by the institutional review board (IRB).