The Development of Research Skills in Nursing Postgraduate Training

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This study was conducted in clinical practice, and I think it will be an important data for making evidence-based nursing. However, in order to be accepted as scientific knowledge, the validity needs to be further supplemented.

Qualitative researchers must answer the question to show the validity of the research purpose, “Why is the content analysis method valid to explore this research topic?”

It is necessary to add and describe the limitations of previous studies and the advantages of the content analysis method among qualitative studies.

The researcher says in the manuscript:

The researchers collected data via a group interview, or discussion  group [12-13],      which is one of the most commonly used data collection procedures in social research in education and health, particularly qualitative studies.

Although interviews are frequently used in qualitative research, the analysis method varies depending on the research purpose. The reason for choosing the content analysis method should be described in Introduction Section.

The research questions were as follows.

What research skills did you gain as a result of your graduate training in nursing?    

How do you define and/or assess the development of these research skills? 

 Rather than using a checklist to explore such research questions, if rich data can be obtained through an interview, the content of the interview should be richer. However, the results of the study were mediocre.

For the readers, it is necessary to show specifically what kind of postgraduate education has taken place. By examining the experiences of the research participants who received such education, a strategy to supplement this point can be established in the future.

In addition, specific details to ensure the scientific validity of the research results should be described in the process of research and analysis. There is no information about how the researchers reached an agreement, and additional descriptions are needed about how the researchers prepared for qualitative research and what efforts were made to secure reliability.

According to the results of the study, there is no difference from previous studies. The contents shown in the research results are shown as curriculum-based research skills. These parts seem to have already been revealed in other studies, and in-depth discussion is needed to show the difference from previous studies.

Author Response

You will find below a file with the answers to the recommendations made.
We would like to inform you that we have made some changes to the text, marked in purple, which are intended to correct some translation errors.
The article follows with changes arising from reviewers' recommendations (coloured in yellow) and corrections to translation errors (coloured in purple).

Yours faithfully 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

I would like to thank the authors for the opportunity to read  this interesting paper. The topic analyzed is really strategic both for the training context and the clinical practice. I hope to provide the authors some useful suggestions to improve the article.

First of all, the abstract could be improved by presenting the paper in a more interesting way from the first line. In particular (lines 4-5): why is important to investigate the research skills in the nursing graduate training? How these skills are reported in the clinical practice?

With reference the literature review in the introduction, what is the specificy of the nursing traning context of Portugal, and of the Local Health Unit of Baixo Alentejo? 

Although the paper presents an exploratory and descriptive study, the sample of eight nurses is very poor. It should be strengthened and expanded.

"The study design" is a very short pharaph. On the contrary, a paragraph dedicated to ethical aspects seems superfluous.

The parthecipants could be presented with more details useful for the discussion.

(line 75) "...with diverse and rich experiences in different contexts of hospital": what experience? In what unit? How many years of experience do they have? 

Results. The category of "Translating knowledge into clinical practice" is very central for the paper and it should be better argued in the discussion.

Discussion. With reference to this statement "Nursing education faces several challenges [15-16]. The results of the present study corroborate the opinions of those who contend that the need to learn research skills, including how to synthesize, translate, and implement evidence, and develop skills that help professionals adopt knowledge-guided practice, represent a call to rethink the place of evidence in nursing curricula, especially in graduate training", the results do not seem to consolidate it. 

Again, the statements:

- "In these studies, the authors emphasize the need for further research about how to implement EBP and train nurses in this approach, in both clinical and academic contexts, considering the characteristics of nursing professionals, who are both users and potential producers of knowledge [20]." 

..."They provide information about how graduate education can enable the development of research skills and how it can influence the quality of the evidence produced, its dissemination, and its translation into clinical practice, with the possibility of improving quality of care." seem disconnected with the research and, in particular, with the results.

In the same way, the conclusions - valid and clear with respect to introduction - must be better linked with the results.

Author Response

You will find below a file with the answers to the recommendations made.
We would like to inform you that we have made some changes to the text, marked in purple, which are intended to correct some translation errors.
The article follows with changes arising from reviewers' recommendations (coloured in yellow) and corrections to translation errors (coloured in purple).

Yours faithfully 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The revised results were confirmed as requested by the reviewer.

This study will serve as good basic data for evidence-based nursing.

It is not easy to develop nurses' competencies and generate scientific knowledge in clinical practice.

Author Response

Once again we thank you for your valuable contribution to the revision and improvement of the quality of our article.

Reviewer 2 Report

Response 2: The training of nurses in Portugal has particularities that really justify your comment. The training of nurses in Portugal includes two cycles. The first cycle (4-year degree) allows for the training of general care nurses. Nurses with two years of professional activity can apply for the professionalizing master's degrees, in the nursing specialty areas defined by the Portuguese Order of Nurses. In this specific case they are students of the specialization course in rehabilitation nursing. In the specific case of the master's course held in Baixo Alentejo, this is a This is an associative master's degree, i.e. it involves all the health schools in the south of the country and is designed to prepare students for the production, communication and transfer of results into clinical practice and to meet the health care needs of an ageing population. We have not included any information on these specificities in the text because we considered that it influenced neither the method nor the results of the study.

In the light of the response 2, I would once again suggest a brief note in the text. The research united selected can be clear and obvious in the Portuguese context, but not necessarily in the international context.

Response 6: Thank you for your comments. Following your recommendation, we inform you that the terminology "diverse and rich experiences" is related to the object of study, meaning research competencies by post-graduate training in research. The connotation of diverse and rich experiences presupposes the existence of a care context. It may be the critically ill person in an intensive care unit or an emergency room, or it may be in a surgical care unit. The years of experience is a variable which we did not take into account.

I confirm the suggestion about the expression "diverse and rich experiences". It is useful to clarify the underlying concept for authors; it's very important for the methodology.

Author Response

Face to the commentary or review number 2:

Dear Reviewer

We send responses to suggestions:

In the light of the response 2, I would once again suggest a brief note in the text. The research united selected can be clear and obvious in the Portuguese context, but not necessarily in the international context.

We introduced in the point 2.2. (Location and participants) of the method section this information:

This study was conducted in Portugal, where the training of nurses has some particularities, because it includes two cycles. The first cycle (4-year degree) allows for the training of general care nurses. Nurses with two years of professional activity can apply for the professionalizing master's degree, in the nursing specialty areas defined by the Portuguese Order of Nurses. In this specific case students are of the specialization course in rehabilitation nursing and medical surgical nursing.

Face the above the participants of this study were nurses that obtain their master's degree in Baixo Alentejo, which is an associative master's degree, i.e. it involves all the health schools in the south of the country and is designed to prepare students for the production, communication and transfer of results into clinical practice and to meet the health care needs of an elderly population (page 2; Line 77-87).

Regarding to the comment:

I confirm the suggestion about the expression "diverse and rich experiences". It is useful to clarify the underlying concept for authors; it's very important for the methodology.

We agree that the language used is evaluative and opinionated and have therefore replaced it with:

In the specific case, an intentional (non-probabilistic) sample was used, and the participants were selected by the main researcher: eight nurses with more than 5 years of experience and with several experiences in different contexts of hospital care, i.e., clinical practice in different units during the course of their professional activities (page:2, lines 89-91).