Creating Clinical Research Protocols in Advanced Practice: Part II, Operational Steps to Improve Project Feasibility

In part I of this series,¹  we identified 3 challenges that often beset advanced practice nurses in the research protocol development phase. These included (1) clinical practice isolation, (2) limited preparation for independent research or improvement science design, and (3) time constraints, either to pursue funding or to engage in unfunded clinical inquiry. As a result of these challenges, nurses often have limited peer support and rudimentary methodological or design experience, and they must struggle to negotiate funded time to conduct research as a part of their clinical practice. The purpose of this second part of the series on research protocol development by advanced practice nurses is to provide solutions for the individual components of the protocol itself. In part I, we began with topic selection and addressed broad issues associated with identification of the problem for the background section.¹  In part II of the series, we address...