Aims and Objectives Developing a strategic approach to research capacity building in nursing has become a recent national aim with nurses’ key in leading and delivering research. To achieve this, it is essential to make research appealing, particularly in areas where there are additional clinical pressures such as Emergency Departments (ED). To aid the recruitment of research delivery nurses in the ED, we instigated embedded structured opportunities for nurses to work on secondment in research delivery to support career progression and develop specific expertise in emergency care research.

We aimed to evaluate the experiences of ED nurses undertaking the research secondment.

Method and Design An online survey was distributed to all nurses who have undertaken the secondment in the past 10 years (n=55). Survey data included reasons for applying for the secondment, post-secondment roles, expectations and whether they would recommend the role. Confidence in research before and after the role was measured using a 5-point Likert scale.

Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. For Likert data, the Shapiro–Wilk test was used to test the normality of the data. A Wilcoxon signed ranks test was used to analyse specific dimensions of ED nurse confidence in research pre- and post-secondment.

Results and Conclusion Survey response rate was 26/55 (47.3%). Of the respondents, 14 (53.8%) were band 6, with only 1 having experience of research delivery previously. When asked ‘How likely are you to recommend the research secondment to others?’ (1 being ‘would not recommend’ - 10 being ‘would definitely recommend’), the mean score was 9.44 SD +/- .869.

For dimensions of ED nurse confidence, all variables showed statistically significant improvement post-secondment compared to pre-secondment (p<0.001).

Conclusion The embedded clinical research nurse model in ED has resulted in sustained levels of nurse engagement and an increase in study recruitment. It has the potential to be easily replicated in other departments.