Collaborative or Consortium Research
Consortium Nursing Research,Purposes Of Consortium Research,Medical Treatment Research and Public Health.
Consortium Nursing Research
Consortium
research is a form of collaborative research that can be used to increase the
quantity and quality of nursing research within clinical settings. It involves
cooperative efforts among researchers at several institutions.
The sites have
formal, well-defined administrative and working relationships that spell out
agreed-upon roles and responsibilities.
Purposes Of Consortium Research
Consortium
studies are done for a number of reasons:
(a) to achieve the required sample
size when studying a low-prevalence disease
(b) to increase the ethnic
diversity or other characteristics of a sample, thus increasing
generalization of results
(c) to shorten the time line for conducting the
study by simultaneously recruiting subjects at multiple sites
(d) to provide
mentoring to more junior researchers and staff nurses
(e) to share resources,
tasks, and costs when external funding is not available
(f) to increase
opportunities for replication and dissemination.
studies may be conceived by one or a few investigators who draft the initial
proposal then recruit colleagues at other sites to participate in the study.
These other investigators may be involved in helping to refine the proposal
before it is submitted for funding.
When the purpose of the consortium is more
focused on mentoring junior colleagues or is a way to share resources and
costs, it is more likely that development of the proposal will be a group
endeavor from the start.
In the latter case, the choice of topic may be
generated by an advisory or steering committee, whichever approach is taken,
the pool of ideas generated by expertise from several institutions creates
synergy that leads to more creative and productive research.
conduct these multisite studies, one site usually serves a coordinating
function for the study.
Most often in externally funded studies, the
coordinating center is responsible for identifying or developing questionnaires
or other data collection forms, for data collection and processing procedures,
and for receiving and centrally analyzing the study data.
The oversight role of
the coordinating center includes development and implementation of a quality
control plan to assure standardization of sample identification, recruitment,
and data collection procedures.
Scientific issues for the conduct of the study
are usually managed by a steering committee, often composed of the principal
investigator from each participating site and a few key individuals at the
coordinating center.
Standing or ad hoc subcommittees of the steering committee
are often formed to propose standards and oversee the work on specific aspects
of the study.
For example, the subcommittees bring proposals for publications
and presentations, participant safety and end-points, or clinical aspects
before the steering committee for approval.
The degree to which the steering
committee is involved in the development of protocols, questionnaires, and so
forth, as opposed to approving those developed by the coordinating center,
varies by study and the reason the consortium was created.
In a
consortium formed primarily for the purpose of sharing resources, mentoring
junior researchers, replicating a previous study, or disseminating results, the
steering committee may be composed of representatives appointed by each
participating institution.
In such cases the steering committee often serves
the purpose of setting priorities for the activities of the consortium. Funding
of studies conducted by a consortium may take several forms. When external
funding is involved, the two most common types are:
(a) providing one large
grant to a coordinating center, which then subcontracts with each clinical
site.
(b) providing individual grants to each participating institution
with a separate grant to the coordinating center.
The first approach gives the
coordinating center budgetary leverage when a site is not performing up to par.
This is an advantage for involving a new site or increasing the number of
subjects enrolled at existing sites by redistributing funds from the
nonperforming site.
The second approach requires that each site meet the
commitments for the good of the overall study. A third model, used when
external funding is not available, shares the cost of the research among
participating institutions within the consortium.
Medical Treatment Research and Public Health
In
medical treatment research and public health prevention research, consortium
arrangements have been a preferred structure for large randomized trials that
must recruit substantial population.
In a relatively short time, provide
intervention, and have sufficient follow-up time to generate adequate
statistical power to compare the effects of treatment on the study outcomes.
Nursing has generally had less experience with this approach, although
consortia of schools of nursing with several practice settings have been formed
to facilitate the conduct of collaborative clinical nursing research ( Rizzuto
& Mitchell, 1988a , 1988b , 1990; Schutzenofer & Potter, 1989 ; Zalar ,
Wels, & Walker, 1985).
It
may be expected that consortium research will increase as nursing researchers
do more experimental research. Another factor that may promote consortium
research in nursing is the changing health care system.
As health care systems
increase the number of contractual arrangements in attempts to provide
cost-effective, integrated care across the continuum of patient needs,
consortium research is likely to become more common.