How to develop the research idea into a research proposal? Focus on Nursing research priorities based on CINAHL.

Highlights

• A research proposal is the first and most vital component of a research as it gives a brief summary of the work.
• There have been updated several different research priority areas by research foundations, societies etc.
• CINAHL database is an important electronic database for the nurses and nurse researchers.

Background

Developing a research idea into a research proposal is of paramount significance for the researchers as it is the foundation of their research or a brief, but clear explanation of their research (Sudheesh, Duggappa, & Nethra, 2016). Thus it becomes imperative to construct a clear and well-planned and designed proposal (McGranaghan, 2014). A research proposal describes what the researcher knows about his research and what novelty would he be introducing, its significance and what queries of other researchers will be resolved through his work. Since here our focus is on nursing research priorities it is necessary to be familiar with the different terms allied with the domain

Similar to the other research domains, it is imperative that in nursing research domain also a proper strategy is formulated which justifies its application for future. Through this one can identify the various nursing and healthcare research works that should be undertaken in future and also explore the areas that are untouched (Hopia & Heikkilä, 2020). Additionally building such strategies would help us to follow the necessary procedures for planning that future (National Institute of Nursing Research, 2016) (National Institute of Nursing Research [NINR], 2016.)  However, in order to plan a suitable and practical nursing strategy, it is necessary that the nursing research priorities are identified on different levels such as local, national and international which can be a challenging task.

Several nursing research societies, networks and foundations all over the world have identified different research priorities. For example, the European Nursing Research Foundation published a strategic and operational plan for period 2017-2020 defining the research priorities as self-care management, positive nursing practice environment etc.

Introduction

Emphasizing on planning or developing a research proposal, several researchers that it is necessary to conduct an in-depth academic discussion in the area of nursing theory development  (Im, 2014; Jairath, Peden-McAlpine, Sullivan, Vessey, & Henly, 2018; Turkel et al., 2018). It has been asserted that while developing the research proposal the various paradigms such as health, person, nursing and environment should be focused on (Rolfe, 2016). It has also been mentioned that while planning a research it is difficult to demonstrate the significance of nursing through high-quality and properly designed economic evaluation research. Similarly, the authors (Zhao et al., 2018) asserted that in the research work more emphasis should be laid on the suitable methods of planning evidence-based nursing research. Thus to develop a research idea into a research proposal it is necessary that different educational strategies and teaching methodologies should be evaluated.

Considering the significance of nursing research priorities a research proposal should include the following sections:

• Introduction
• Literature review
• Aims and objectives
• Research design and methods
• Ethical considerations
• Citations

A snippet of each of these is given as follows:

Introduction: It is the initial section of a research document and describes in brief what the research is about and what its significance is. The introduction should be designed and planned in such a manner that it arouses the interest of reader towards topic and proposal.

Literature review: This section of the proposal should include a brief description of the latest works performed in the area discussed, highlighting the issues and solutions suggested by the authors. For this section, there is a large amount of data making it a challenge for the researcher to choose the most relevant ones.

Aims and objectives: It is the foremost cited section of a research and presents the intention of researcher or the goals that are planned. Some researchers categorize the aims and objectives as primary and secondary.

Summary: A successful and qualitative research proposal should include a summary that interprets the knowledge of the researcher in that field. It gives an idea about the knowledge of researchers towards the methods employed.

Thus a research proposal can be defined as a short document that clearly illustrates the motive or purpose of researcher towards planning the research or in other words outlines the complete research process to be undertaken by the researcher. It is essential to plan a research proposal as it ensures planning a smooth and well-designed research work. Some of the key points that should be included in a research proposal are as follows:

• What is the primary motive of conducting study?
• Where or in what areas is the study being conducted?
• What is the source of data used for the study?
• What are the techniques followed in study?
• How will the data gathered be analyzed?
• How will the results obtained be interpreted?

Summary

Though there are different research works conducted in different areas or fields but all follow a similar procedure up to certain extent. All research works require a common procedure to be followed but here emphasis has been laid on performing nursing research by identifying the priorities or topics that need to be addressed. It is noteworthy here that CINAHL database is a popular and common database that needs to be referred while planning nursing research. Most of the nations have already laid emphasis on identifying the nursing research priorities and make it necessary to be implemented in all the nursing research works. In some of the works authors have described the key nursing priorities that need to be addressed as proper practice environment for nurses, proper management etc.

It has been asserted that the most critical step in planning a research is drafting the research questions. An improper formulation of research question leads to erroneous study design and eventually poor research. In most of the cases the researchers fail to follow a systematic approach and the most general issue encountered by practitioners is translating the clinical questions into formal scientific investigation.

References

1. Hopia, H., & Heikkilä, J. (2020). Nursing research priorities based on CINAHL database: A scoping review. Nursing Open, 7(2), 483–494. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.428
2. Im, E.-O. (2014). The Status Quo of Situation-Specific Theories. Research and Theory for Nursing Practice, 28(4), 278–298. https://doi.org/10.1891/1541-6577.28.4.278
3. Jairath, N. N., Peden-McAlpine, C. J., Sullivan, M. C., Vessey, J. A., & Henly, S. J. (2018). Theory and Theorizing in Nursing Science. Nursing Research, 67(2), 188–195. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNR.0000000000000273
4. McGranaghan, M. (2014). Guidelines on writing a research proposal. Retrieved from https://www2.hawaii.edu/~matt/proposal.html
5. National Institute of Nursing Research. (2016). The Ninr Strategic Plan: Advancing Science, Improving Lives. Retrieved from https://www.ninr.nih.gov/sites/files/docs/ninr_stratplan2016_reduced.pdf
6. Rolfe, G. (2016). Exercising the nursing imagination: putting values and scholarship back into research. Journal of Research in Nursing, 21(7), 517–527. https://doi.org/10.1177/1744987116667441
7. Sudheesh, K., Duggappa, D., & Nethra, S. (2016). How to write a research proposal? Indian Journal of Anaesthesia, 60(9), 631. https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5049.190617
8. Turkel, M., Fawcett, J., Chinn, P. L., Eustace, R., Hansell, P. S., Smith, M. C., … Zahourek, R. (2018). Thoughts About Advancement of the Discipline: Dark Clouds and Bright Lights. Nursing Science Quarterly, 31(1), 82–85. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894318417741121
9. Zhao, J., Liu, X., Zhang, W., Xing, Y., Cho, S. W., & Hao, Y. (2018). Evidence-based nursing outputs and hot spot analysis of the last 5 years in mainland China: Results of a bibliometric analysis. International Journal of Nursing Practice, 24(2), e12628. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijn.12628