Impact of a pivot nurse in oncology on patients with lung or breast cancer: symptom distress, fatigue, quality of life, and use of healthcare resources.

Purpose/objectives: To examine the impact on continuity of nursing care delivered by a pivot nurse in oncology to improve symptom relief and outcomes for patients with lung or breast cancer.

Design: Randomized controlled trial in which participants were randomly assigned to an intervention group (n = 93) with care by a pivot nurse in oncology and usual care by clinic nurses or to a control group (n = 97) with usual care only.

Setting: Three outpatient ambulatory oncology clinics in a large university health center in Quebec, Canada.

Strategies to increase research-based practice: interplay with unit culture.

Purpose: A major focus of clinical nurse specialist nursing practice is the integration of research findings into practice. The purpose of this study was to describe strategies used to facilitate research utilization (RU) by nurses in a practice setting.

Design: This multiple-case study identified the strategies that clinical nurse specialists and master's degree-prepared nurse educators, working collaboratively, used to facilitate RU.

Unit culture and research-based nursing practice in acute care.

The purpose of this multiple-case study of research utilization (RU) was to examine whether and how nursing practices in acute-care units are built on research and to identify potential explanations for the observed patterns. Open-ended data were collected from staff nurses and nursing leaders on 8 acute-care units through interviews and observation. RU varied within and across units, but unit culture emerged as the principal factor linked to patterns of RU.