[Skrawberri]

Hey guys and gals, I am a junior nursing student (2nd semester) and in our Research class we have to do a group project. We have to come up with an "idea" that we will research, but not really do an experiment on.. Its kind of hard to explain. But it has to do with patient care.. like, for example...

1. The effects that waking a patient up at 4am for blood work, meds, etc has on overall healing. (sleep)

2. The effects that the new turning beds have on bed sores verses a normal hospital bed.

Stuff like that... Our group would like to do something having to do with pediatrics, but we are so lost and cannot think of anything!! Anyone have any ideas??

[Daytonite]

Start by doing a literature search. Ask the librarian to help you if you need. You can either search online or through the printed indexes. Think of subject areas to base your search of articles on because any "proposal", which is what your assignment is (we had to do two of them in my BSN program), has to be thoroughly based on some previous research that has laid the foundation for what you want to propose to test. My guess is that you are going to have to find research literature that has been done on adults and then as part of your proposal bring up the fact that no similar testing has been done on pediatric patients. That will lead you into the heart of your proposal. You will most likely need to explain how you are going to adapt your testing tools to the pediatric patient unless you can locate a pediatric nurse researcher whose tools you like. It's far easier to use or adapt another researchers tools than to create your own. If you're lucky, you'll find a research project that you'll only need to tweak a bit by changing one or more of the conditions of the study to establish your own proposal.

If you find a nurse researchers work you like, write to him/her and ask if you can have a copy of their work or their tools. Most will share them with you as they are aware that once published, their work becomes the basis for the research of others.

Another place you might look for pediatric research articles specifically is in the journal(s) of the professional pediatric nurses associations. Many of them encourage and support research of their members. Many nurse practitioners working on their masters degrees (specifically in pediatric care) will be doing projects or research in this area. A librarian can help you find copies of their dissertations or theses. Other places to look for research are on the website of the National Institute of Health who supports a lot of different research as well as any major pediatric healthcare facilities. If they have any nurses on staff who are involved in pediatric research, they'll be boasting about it. Also, start checking the reference sections at the end of the chapters of your pediatrics textbook for articles to start searching for. There are some research articles that you will find mentioned again and again as you start to narrow the focus of your article search. Some of the articles that appear in AJN and Nursing are synopses of larger research works that you might want to investigate. Have fun!

http://www.napnap.org/index_home.cfm - National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners
http://www.pedsnurses.org/all.php?l=home&w=1024 - Society of Pediatric Nurses
http://www.apon.org/ - Association of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses
http://www.discovernursing.com/jnj-specialtyID_126-dsc-specialty_detail.aspx - Pediatric Nursing specialty on Discover Nursing website
http://www.discovernursing.com/jnj-specialtyID_266-dsc-specialty_detail.aspx - Pediatric Endocrinology Nursing specialty on Discover Nursing website