An Innovative Teaching Approach to Nursing Research

Creative teaching methods are essential strategies to engage nurses in today's fast-paced work environment. Nurses must balance nursing research with their primary responsibility for patient care. Yet, many nurses do not feel they have the education and skills to conduct research at the bedside. Innovative teaching methods make learning about nursing research fun and applicable for nurses at the bedside. Members from the Nursing Education and Research Council along with the nurse researcher at this community hospital took the challenge. The nurses worked together to develop a mock study that exemplified the research process by using different types of chocolate chips ("intervention"), measuring outcomes ("taste preferences") by nurses ("study participants"), and ranking the results ("data methods"). The mock chocolate chip study helped educate and fuel interest in participation in future nursing research.