Online resources for research nurses

Posted on Apr 9, 2012 by Leslie Gelling in Research

There are very many resources on the internet for nurses involved in research, whether that be clinical research, academic research or student research. One of the most popular websites in the UK is hosted by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). The RCN’s research web pages (www.rcn.org.uk/research), managed by the RCN’s Innovation and Research Team, provide one of the most comprehensive online resources for research nurses. The pages are regularly updated and carefully maintained. This helps to ensure they stay relevant to the needs of those involved in research and those seeking support for their research studies. A useful resource for research nurses.

The RCN’s research web pages include an astonishing 1,186 individual pages with some 1,106 downloadable files. These were accessed over 1.3 million times in 2011. Examples of some of the most accessed and most useful pages include:

Academic Research Interests, which aims to facilitate greater collaboration between clinicians, managers, researchers and policy-makers by making research interests accessible through a searchable database (http://tinyurl.com/6up5f7q).
Database of postgraduate research training opportunities, making it easy for prospective students to identify suitable training opportunities (http://tinyurl.com/7ewfo5h).
Research networks (methodologies), which provides information about particular research methodologies (http://tinyurl.com/6lzpn4h).

But which were the most downloaded documents on the site in 2011? Programmes from previous RCN research conferences are perennially popular. The 2011 conference programme was downloaded 5,201 times in the seven months of 2011 it was available to view (http://tinyurl.com/88zyfqx). And demonstrating the RCN Research Society’s ability to respond to the needs of its members, the top two downloads of 2011, and of every year they have been produced online, are the guidance the RCN Research Society produces on research ethics (with 11,015 downloads) (http://tinyurl.com/84almrm) and informed consent (with 41,664 downloads in 2011 alone) (http://tinyurl.com/6zlgzbf).

Another extremely useful resource is the Research and Innovation team’s weekly research e-bulletin (http://tinyurl.com/8xbmzh6). This has been sent out continuously since 1998 – about 700 editions. Each week it is sent to approximately 4,000 recipients from around the world with the top subscribers being in the UK (57%), Australia, Ireland and New Zealand. The e-bulletin offers subscribers a brief update on additions to the web pages and other research resources.

The RCN’s research pages offer an extremely valuable online resource for all those involved in research, including research nurses.