Nursing Research Council: Apply to Conduct a Study at UNC Medical Center

Contact Nancy Havill (Nancy.Havill @ unchealth.unc.edu) for the applications to conduct nursing research, quality improvement, program evaluation, or implementation science projects.

The Nursing Research Council (NRC) reviews all research studies that involve nurses at UNC Medical Center (UNC-MC) in any way (i.e., participants, data collectors, etc.); student projects that involve UNC-MC nurses regardless of the project’s methodology; and nursing student projects when the project takes place at the Medical Center. The application review process has been updated; there are now different applications for different methodologies.

The following descriptions are not intended as a comprehensive definition, but rather a generalized guide to assist you in the application process. It is important to complete the correct application to ensure your project is reviewed in the most efficient manner. Note that the categories below are not mutually exclusive and, depending on the project, may overlap. Use the primary purpose of your project as a guide and if you are uncertain about which category/application is the best fit for your project, contact Nancy Havill.

Evidence-based practice (or intervention) is a program, practice, product, pill, policy, etc. that has been tested and found to be effective in one or more research studies (Leeman et al. 2017). Any type of project might involve an evidence-based practice or intervention and all practice changes should be informed by some type of evidence. You might do formative work to plan for implementing an evidence-based practice. You might use QI methods to implement an evidence-based practice. A research project you lead could inform an evidence-based practice. You might do an evaluation of how well a previously implemented evidence-based practice is working. Or you might do a research study to determine the best strategies for implementing an evidence-based practice.

Evidence Based Practice: If the purpose of your project is to implement a new evidence-based practice or intervention in your setting, then it is an evidence-based practice (EBP) or intervention project. For example: You are new to UNC-MC and notice that the venous access device (VAD) flushing procedure is different than that of your former hospital. You wonder what the latest evidence is for flushing. You search the literature and find a recent meta-analysis that indicates a new VAD flushing technique is superior (proven efficacy and effectiveness) to the one outlined in hospital policy, and you want to introduce this new technique on your unit.

Quality Improvement: If the purpose is to address a gap in performance – then generally it is quality improvement. QI projects focus on identifying factors contributing to gaps in an existing process and on systematically trialing potential improvements to the process. For example: Wait times in the Emergency Department are determined by how efficient the process is to move patients through the different points of contact with care providers. A QI project would map out (process map) how patients move through the system and examine the process map for opportunities to improve the flow by trialing small experiments that build upon each other. QI projects rely upon continuous measurement of the processes to assess improvement.

Research: If the purpose is to generate new knowledge to inform practice beyond your own setting – then it is a research project. Research goes beyond local improvements in practice and seeks to produce knowledge that is broadly generalizable. For example: There is no existing evidence about whether this new flushing technique is effective among pediatric cancer patients, so you design a study to test the effectiveness of the flushing technique for pediatric cancer patients, with the goal that the knowledge generated will be useful beyond your practice setting.

Program evaluation: If the purpose is to use measurement and analysis to examine the influence/outcomes of a specific program or educational intervention in a specific setting – then it is a program evaluation. Program evaluation focuses on outcomes at the local level and does not make claims about how the program can work in other locations. For example: You want to evaluate whether a VAD educational program impacted the number of catheter occlusions and whether nurses changed their practice after the educational session.

Implementation science: If the purpose of the project is to close the gap between what we know and what we do by studying methods and strategies to facilitate the integration of EBP, interventions, or research into the practice setting, or by identifying and addressing barriers that inhibit the uptake of evidence-based practice, then it is an implementation science project. Implementation science is a type of research study undertaken for the purpose of generating generalizable knowledge.

Applications are due on the third Wednesday of every month.

Applications are reviewed then voted on at regular NRC meetings which are the third Thursday of every month.

Notification letters are sent within one week of the NRC meeting.