Cécile Marie Dupin

Trends in nursing research in France: a cross-sectional analysis.

AIM To examine the engagement of French registered nurses with the Ministry of Healths initiative to spur scientific inquiry in the community. BACKGROUND French nursing research has suffered from a lack of dedicated funding. Positive signs of change have recently appeared, with the launch of the first national public funding programme dedicated to nursing research. This initiative, begun in 2010, was launched by the French Ministry of Health. Through this initiative, 149 registered nurses, serving as principal investigators, and their teams submitted research proposals between 2010 and 2011. The administrative guidelines of the funding programme are clearly oriented towards producing quantitative and exogenous nursing research. METHOD A cross-sectional analysis of 149 nursing research projects submitted during the first and second years of a French national funding programme for hospital-based nursing research was conducted. Research proposals were included in the analysis whether they received funding or not. Data collection took place in 2011. The categories used in the analysis were the following: (1) the socio-demographic data on the registered nurse principal investigators, (2) the research teams and (3) the research proposals (methodologies, bibliography, focus of the research, output, the status of the research proposals). RESULTS This study highlights the presence of methodological homogeneity among the research proposals submitted for funding. Clear tendencies were towards interventional and quantitative studies and those with an exogenous factor research objective. Between 2010 and 2011, 25 projects were funded out of 149 submitted. They were mostly quantitative and/or focused on the exogenous factors in patient care. CONCLUSION The socio-political context of a funding programme designed to encourage nursing research has had an implicit influence on the type of research to which French nurses have committed themselves to and the scientific positions with which these nurse researchers align themselves.

Mixed-Method Nursing Research: “A Public and Its Problems?” A Commentary on French Nursing Research

Nursing in France is undergoing a transition. In 2009, the preregistration nursing education program was reformed in line with the European Bologna Process, bringing nursing education to the universities. In 2010, the French Programme Hospitalier de Recherche Infirmière, the first national French nursing research funding program, was launched by the French Health Ministry. Of the 149 French research proposals submitted by registered nurses in 2010 and 2011, 13 were mixed-method proposals. The registered nurse principal investigator argued for a complementary use of qualitative and quantitative methods. These trends highlight major issues regarding mixed-method and nursing research. We can reasonably assume that mixed-method research has a broad appeal for nurse scholars, particularly for the exploration of complex phenomena related to nursing. Moreover, the recent movement in the domain of nursing education and research experienced in France highlights the need for dedicated research education in the development of nursing research capacity.