Context and Research Use in the Care of Children: A Pilot Study
Start/End Dates : July 2007 - September 2007
Investigators : Carole A. Estabrooks (PI), Greta Cummings, Shannon Scott
Funder : Canadian Institues of Health Research (CIHR) Team Grant
Background :The CIHR Team Grant in Children's Pain is a 5 year, multi-site study with the primary aim to decrease acute pain in hospitalized children by narrowing the gap between existing research on pain in children and what currently occurs in clinical practice. The team is composed of a multidisciplinary research team from nursing, medicine, and psychology with expertise in pediatric pain, research utilization, evidence-based practice, and quality assurance.
Description : Within the scope of the CIHR Team grant there are three projects. The pilot study was conducted as a feasibility study for Project 2.The goal of project 2 is to evaluate the influence of organizational context on research use. Dr. Carole Estabrooks is the lead investigator for Project 2. The Alberta Context Tool will be used in Project 2 to assess the organizational structures and processes thought to influence the use of research in practice.
The purpose of this project is to pilot test (the Alberta Context Tool) which examines the impact of context (i.e. physical and social environment) on knowledge translation in a population of neonatal and pediatric acute care health professionals. In addition, a concurrent process evaluation was conducted to assess the acceptability and feasibility of proposed methods and data collection instruments for the larger research study. Information gathered included information on: sampling, data collection format (web vs. print), psychometrics of the data collection instrument, and refinement of the data collection tool. Because the ACT had only been tested in an adult acute care setting, the pilot study was used to determine if the factor structure of the instrument is stable in a pediatric and neonatal acute care setting.
The objectives of this project are to:
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To modify the survey for use in pediatric and neonatal acute care settings;
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To assess the measurement properties of the survey (e.g., stability, internal consistency, face, content, and construct validity);
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To create a profile of context and research utilization in each of the three units and providing a comparison with other units in the study.
The products of this research program are:
Technical Report: