Puzzle patterns: Research day interactive strategy

SummaryThe article describes the planning, implementation, and assessment of an interactive strategy designed for a research day at the College of Nursing, University of Saskatchewan. A decision was made to use a creative, interactive strategy involving the use of large, blank jigsaw puzzles to generate a visual depiction of research interests and challenges faced by participants who represented graduate and undergraduate nursing students, faculty, and invited guests from government, health regions, and professional associations. Participants were asked the following questions – “What are you curious about in nursing and health care,” and “What situations or questions in nursing need answers”? The strategy demonstrated the comprehensiveness of information that can be obtained through a short-turn around interactive strategy. Further, it also attests to the broad spectrum of interests within a single nursing education program and posits the potential for educators to undertake further thematic analysis to synthesize the data to inform research agendas.