Nurse-led research
Research by nurses, for nurses
The May 2025 issue of JBI Evidence Synthesis features nurse-driven research. In addition to the qualitative systematic review on international nursing students’ experiences and accompanying editorial with its call for better support, four protocols for nursing research currently underway are published in the issue.
Nurses as researchers dates back to Florence Nightingale whose innovative approach to data analysis paved the way for evidence-based medicine and epidemiology. With a background in mathematics and statistics, Nightingale’s research improved hospital management, nursing practices, and public health.
The importance of nurse-led research
Research conducted by nurses, ie nurse-led research, is uniquely important for shaping clinical practice. Nurses are on the front line of healthcare delivery, and their direct interaction with patients provides a distinctive frontline viewpoint. This position allows nurses to identify issues needing research directly from the bedside, and offers valuable insight into the practicality and relevance of new interventions in real clinical environments.
Furthermore, nurses' engagement with patients and communities enables them to research complex health issues, such as health inequity, and consider social and environmental factors. Their research advocates for vulnerable and marginalised populations to inform practice to create fairer healthcare access and improve outcomes for everyone. Leave no one behind: how nurses are building capacity within health systems to respond to global forced migration is editorial accompanying a qualitative systematic review which reported on four areas critical to the care of involuntary migrant maternal women, based on nurses’ experiences caring for them. Together, these publications provide an example of how nurses can provide the evidence to advocate for diverse populations.
Nurse-led research can also be leveraged to solve issues healthcare professionals face daily, such as burnout, mental/physical health issues, increased workloads, and decreased nurse-to-patient ratios. This type of published research can empower other nurses and professional nursing organisations to advocate for themselves, helping employers enact effective policies, support staff, and attract and/or retain staff.
Further examples of why nurse-led research is important now, and into the future, are provided in the four nursing-related protocols in the current issue of JBI Evidence Synthesis.
Published protocols for nurse-led scoping reviews
Nurses have worked in Australian schools for over 100 years, but a national approach to nursing work in schools is lacking. To advocate for a national approach, improve equity of access to nurses at school, develop best practices, and enhance postgraduate education opportunities in school nursing work, a national picture of the scope of nursing work and models of service delivery is required. The scoping review in progress, Scope of nursing work and models of service delivery in Australian primary and secondary schools aims to generate a national picture.
The protocol for the scoping review, Mapping resilience and co-occurring theoretical constructs in nurses, explains that nurse resilience is a key element in interventions targeting nurse well-being and has been tied to burnout and mental health, and that resilience impacts nurse retention. The scoping review underway is timely, given the global nursing shortage and high attrition. It aims to map the concept of resilience and its measurement along with co-occurring theoretical constructs within nursing research.
Fundamentals of Care Framework in nursing education for a scoping review currently underway. The current task-oriented focus in healthcare often neglects patients' fundamental needs; understanding how this person-centred framework is integrated into education may support curriculum design and improve student preparation for delivering safe, high-quality fundamental care.
Another nursing education-related scoping review, Supporting professional practice transition in undergraduate nursing education, is underway. The transition from student nurse to professional practitioner is complex and demands that new graduates apply knowledge under pressure while navigating healthcare systems, ethical challenges, and emotional stress. This scoping review aims to describe educational programming that supports undergraduate student nurses’ transition to practice and/or enhances practice readiness.
Undertaking and publishing research with JBI
Practicing nurses can learn to conduct different types of research studies through the Comprehensive Systematic Review Training Program and Scoping Review Workshop. These hands‐on courses, available both in‐person and online, are designed for clinicians who want to conduct systematic and scoping reviews that inform practice and policy.
Manuscripts for high-quality systematic reviews and scoping reviews using JBI’s world-leading methodologies for evidence syntheses can be submitted to JBI’s peer-reviewed journal, JBI Evidence Synthesis.