The impact of a nurse’s dual role on implementing an effectiveness study
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

The impact of a nurse’s dual role on implementing an effectiveness study

Allison Soprovich End-user lead, University of Alberta School of Public Health, Edmonton, AB, Canada
Lisa Wozniak Research associate, University of Alberta School of Public Health, Edmonton, AB, Canada
Kari Meneen Nurse, director of diabetes services, OKAKI Inc, Calgary, AB, Canada
Dean Eurich Professor, University of Alberta School of Public Health, Edmonton, AB, Canada

Why you should read this article:
  • To learn about a novel, dual nursing role for a research nurse as part of a community-based diabetes intervention for First Nations People in Canada.

  • To explore how the roles of research nurse and care coordinator enhance the implementation and evaluation of healthcare interventions.

  • To discover how essential qualities of nursing leadership and transformation contributed to the success of an intervention in a remote setting.

Background Reorganizing the Approach to Diabetes through the Application of Registries (RADAR) improved diabetes care and outcomes for First Nations people in Alberta, Canada. The nurse involved in the implementation of RADAR performed two roles in this model of care: research nurse and care coordinator.

Aim To describe the research nurse’s dual role in the implementation and evaluation of RADAR.

Discussion The research nurse not only documented and collected data in hard-to-reach communities as part of effective research, she also provided remote care coordination to support community healthcare providers using a culturally tailored registry to facilitate population-level care. This dual role required many qualities of nursing leadership and transformation.

Conclusion The research nurse’s two roles contributed to the success of the intervention and were critical to the successful implementation of the model, creating valuable real-world evidence across diverse populations and settings.

Implications for practice Nurses are well placed to perform research duties alongside engagement and implementation activities. This can enhance the effectiveness and evaluation of healthcare interventions, particularly in community-based interventions within First Nations communities.

Nurse Researcher. doi: 10.7748/nr.2024.e1939

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

Correspondence

allison.soprovich@ualberta.ca

Conflict of interest

None declared

Soprovich A, Wozniak L, Meneen K et al (2024) The impact of a nurse’s dual role on implementing an effectiveness study. Nurse Researcher. doi: 10.7748/nr.2024.e1939

Published online: 27 September 2024

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