XXXX 's Delphi study on national research priorities for emergency nurses in the United States.

@entity1 @entity10203 @entity2613 @entity158
INTRODUCTION: This study identified and prioritized research questions with greatest value to emergency nurses and of highest importance for health care consumers. METHODS: Three hundred twenty emergency nursing leaders were invited to participate in 3 rounds of mailed surveys aimed at developing consensus. During round I, 147 nurses submitted 456 research problems. These problems were synthesized into 154 researchable questions, encompassing 17 themes. The round II questionnaire listed these questions in random order. Respondents used a 7-point Likert scale to rate each question's value for practicing nurses and importance for health care consumers. One hundred one nurses rated 106 questions >5.0. The round III questionnaire was individualized to provide each respondent's round II score and each item's median group score. Reflecting on these data, subjects again rated the 106 questions. RESULTS: Seventy-nine nurses rated 16 questions 6.0 or greater for value for practicing nurses; 3 questions were rated 6.0 or greater for importance to consumers. Optimum staff to @entity1 ratios, effects of mandatory overtime, holding admitted @entity1 , and @entity2613 overcrowding, as well as effective strategies for educating and ensuring competence of nurses, were highest priority research problems for practicing nurses. @entity158 relief, impact of and methods of decreasing holding/lengthy @entity2613 stay, and effective strategies for @entity1 teaching were judged most important for consumers. DISCUSSION: Nurses' concerns with staff shortages and overcrowding of emergency departments and their effects on @entity1 are paramount. @entity158 management and @entity1 education were chief clinical issues requiring research. The mission of @entity10203 is "to provide visionary leadership for emergency nursing and emergency care." This mission encompasses a number of values, including the following: "The discipline of emergency nursing includes a defined and evolving body of knowledge based on research."(1) In 1998, the @entity10203 appointed vision councils to develop futuristic ideas to advance @entity10203 's mission. The Research Vision Council proposed that @entity10203 develop a center for emergency nursing research to provide leadership and focus for scientific approaches to the many issues that concern emergency nurses and their @entity1 . The Board of Directors supported this idea by formulating a work group to develop the National Institute for Emergency Nursing Research. In 1999, the work group proposed that a study be conducted to determine national priorities for emergency nursing research. This article reports on the methods and results of a Delphi study conducted for that purpose.
