I need help with selecting a topic for my nursing research class

[marieemariee]

Hi everyone. I'm new to the site. I need some help with a nursing research topic and I thought this would be the perfect site to get some help. I am in a nursing program and I need some help coming up with an evidence based practice topic for my research class. Basically it has to be related to a hospital setting and related to nursing care. It can be either clinical, institutional or administrative topic. The goal is to research the topic/question and come up with a recommendation. Only one I've come up with is "if nurses pray with their patients, will they have shorter hospital stays?". Thanks!

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

Have you learned about the PICOT format? It's a way of formulating research questions. This is a good read PICO questions

Do you actually have to do the research yourself, or is this hypothetical?

Your possibilities are endless. If your outcome that you want to focus on is shorter hospital stays, you could look at prayer, or you could look at early mobility, use of art or music therapy, use of epidural anesthesia in thoracic surgical patients post-op, PCA vs. clinician administered analgesia, adherence to foam-in-foam-out policies, open vs. restricted visiting policies...

If your outcome is pressure ulcer prevention you could look at the effects of standard vs. gel vs. low air loss mattresses, dietary supplementation, cloth Chux vs. disposable Chux vs. diaper...

(those aren't in PICOT format, but just some 0100 brainstorming.)

Maybe do some searches on CINAHL or Google Scholar to see how much recent research has been done about the prospective topic. You want to be able to find info on your topic, of course

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

Prayer with patients in a hospital setting has been discussed at length right here on AN as well. If you are going to look at shorter hospital stays, you could include some data on readmissions as well (as that is a reimbursement issue).

Best wishes!

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

You might find ideas here.....EPC Evidence-Based Reports | Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ)