Research activities and resources in in-vitro fertility practices: a survey of nursing professionals

As integral members of the fertility healthcare team, nurses have the training and clinical expertise to conduct independent research. However, there are barriers to research reported from other areas of nursing including lack of time and administrative support, as well as limited knowledge of the research process. The research activities and resources available to nursing professionals in infertility practice has not been investigated. The goal of this study was to investigate the specific challenges that prevent infertility nurses from initiating research projects. The purpose of this study was to survey infertility nursing professionals regarding participation and resources related to research. The Nurses Professional Group (NPG) Scope of Practice and Research Survey was distributed via e-mail by the NPG of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and included a variety of questions including demographics, professional memberships and guidelines, and research activities, and resources. Data presented focus on the research section of the survey. The majority of respondents came from the Northeastern region (56%) of the United States, worked full time in private practice (89%), had an educational level of bachelor of science in nursing or higher (62%), six or more years of experience in the field (71%), and clinics with ≥700 IVF cycles a year (66%). Respondents indicated that their practices are involved in a variety of research activities including pharmaceutical studies (54%), clinical practice (81%), in-house chart reviews (66%), abstract development (59%), and academic studies (9%). The table below outlines some of the key questions of the study. Based on these results, it appears that the nurses surveyed (≥40%) possess the resources (researcher/research assistant, journal access, research mentor/practice support, time, access to Institutional Review Board (IRB), potential collaborator) to conduct research and have the desire to conduct research (would conduct research if a grant was available, have a specific question they would like to ask as a principal investigator). However, the nursing professionals surveyed (≤ 40%) stated that they feel they do not have the proper training to conduct research (comfortable performing research or developing ideas into research, knowledge of research methodologies and statistical analysis, experience writing abstracts) and very few are incentivized to conduct research. Our findings confirm that fertility nurses have an interest, and often the resources, to conduct research. The primary barrier to independent research is training in research methods and statistical analysis.