Using a group project to teach research methods

Teaching research methods is aproblematic area in nurse education primarily because of the range of research methodologies that nursing research utilises, and also because there is some ambiguity about the purpose of the teaching-whether it is to enable students to read research or to do research. The strategy described in this paper, which is to use a group project, goes some way towards resolving these problems, as it focuses on the types of decisions made in research, rather than the results. By taking students through these decisions in a practicum-type environment, they gain insight into the 'hidden' research process which both informs their reading and any future studies they may conduct.