Teaching Research: The experience of an introductory course for student nurses in Italy

This paper describes the experience of an introductory course in research methodology which was developed at the Nursing School of the Istituto per l'Infanzia of Trieste, Italy. Third-year student nurses were led to understand the basic principles of research through the design and implementation of a real research project, aimed at exploring mothers' views about rooming-in, nursery organization, and the quality of care received during the first days after delivery. A problem-solving approach to research, where methodological choices were presented as 'problems' whose best solution had to be found on the basis of the study objective and of the available resources, small group working under the supervision of a tutor, and oral class presentation of the work performed, represented the major teaching strategies.