Involving clinicians in nursing research.

Collaborative relationships between researchers and clinicians are important in developing the research base for nursing practice. Clinicians contribute to the research process by identifying practice problems, reformulating practice problems into research questions, critiquing the conceptualization and design of the study, evaluating the clinical feasibility of the research protocol, assisting in implementing the research protocol, raising clinical questions relevant to data analyses, and interpreting the results of the study from a clinical perspective. Collaboration between clinicians and researchers on clinical nursing research has the potential to improve patient care by increasing the number of studies completed, enhancing the clinical relevance of oncology nursing research, and strengthening the conceptualization and design of the studies.