First of all, , Barnes recommended. “We encourage young nurses, staff nurses, experienced and novice researchers to explore our grant program,” Barnes said. “And we strongly suggest that nurse applicants find an experienced researcher.” Find one at your own facility or at an academic center nearby, she said. Other possibilities, Bridges said, are to “reach back to one’s own school of nursing and previous faculty.” She said individuals who are biostatisticians or who work in quality improvement also could capably mentor in the research process. “It’s not expected that a direct care nurse would know how to pull a research proposal together,” she said. “We want good science so we get good outcomes, so experience counts.”

to the process, Bridges said. It is imperative that nurse clinicians — whether staff nurses, clinical nurse specialists or APNs — play a meaningful role in the study or project from conceptualization, data collection and analysis to reporting. Applicants need to describe the role of staff nurses both in the letter of intent and the application to ensure this program enhances the research and EBP knowledge and experience of clinical nurses.

Barnes said. It must impact patients or family members of patients with an auto-immune disease or cancer. As the website describes, “while [the foundation] recognizes the vital importance of caring for nurses in improving outcomes for patients, our grants are exclusively for studies or evidence-based practice projects that directly benefit patients and/or their families.”

Know that at your facility, Barnes said. (If your project is exempt, provide written evidence.) Applicants must submit a copy of their IRB approval on IRB letterhead and with an appropriate signature before funding of the grant; however, applicants can be working on their application while IRB approval is pending.

When the response to one’s letter of intent is received, be sure to Bridges said this stage of the process is crucial. Once applicants have received the response for the letter of intent, “they will know pretty much what we are looking for. We provide them very specific feedback about what their grant application needs.”

the study as soon as approval is received. According to the website, “This is one reason why our application requires [nurses] provide evidence of permission to use the tools [they] propose.” Bridges said completion of the projects should be attainable within a year of the start of the research.

Finally, said Barnes, “We have a very gentle approach to this process,” she said. “We don’t fund everything that's applied for, but every nurse finds that there is great insight gained from the reviews for how to make their application stronger. We believe every application should be a learning experience.”