An innovative program to close the gap from research to practice: A clinical neonatal nursing fellowship

Neonatal nursing is specialised and nurses are encouraged to provide evidence for their practice. We established a Clinical Neonatal Nursing Research Fellowship to provide an opportunity for clinical nurses to learn about research. We describe how this innovative program can be implemented in an NICU to support clinical nurses undertaking research. External funding was initially obtained to enable the applicant's clinical position to be back-filled. Applications included a small research proposal to be undertaken in the NICU and there have been five experienced neonatal nurses complete the program.The establishment of the Fellowship has enabled us to create a research culture of enquiry amongst clinical nurses. This is a useful model for other NICUs who are willing to take the initiative to set-up an opportunity. The studies chosen by the Fellowship nurses are topics of interest and/or concern within their NICU and show how nurses can make a different to their clinical practice through enquiry and research.