Research priorities for the nursing of children and their families: a Delphi study.

To most effectively address the issues influencing the health care of children while using limited resources, some priorities for research must be established. To date, there has not been a focused effort to systematically identify and describe critical areas of inquiry needed to provide quality pediatric care in the next decade. The purpose of this study was to systematically survey a cross-section of pediatric nurse experts in a variety of settings across the nation. A three-round Delphi technique was used. In the first round, participants responded to three open-ended questions asking them to identify (a) threats affecting children's health, (b) major societal factors that would positively influence children's health in the future, and (c) important research questions in the field. In rounds two and three, respondents rated the importance of those topics. Of two hundred fifty respondents, 75% or more reached consensus on the importance of 35 researchable topics across five categories of research in nursing of children and their families. The focus was on patient-centered research.