IR Sant Pau’s Nursing Care Research Group Achieves Emerging Research Group Status

How can nursing care be made more effective and safer? How can patients’ adherence to treatment be improved? How can pain be reduced during invasive procedures? What are patients’ experiences like? How can people be empowered to promote, prevent health problems, and take care of their health? These are some questions explored by the nurse researchers of the Nursing Care Research Group at the Institut de Recerca Sant Pau (IR Sant Pau), which has just advanced from associate group to emerging research group status.

This change applies both within IR Sant Pau’s organizational structure and that of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), recognizing the scientific maturity of a team that has grown significantly lately in terms of the number of researchers holding doctoral degrees and publications in high-impact journals. “This step recognizes the work of the entire group and the contribution of nursing research to the Institute. It also encourages us to set new goals and continue strengthening our position,” explains Dr. Gemma Mas Dalmau, head of the group and professor at the Escola Universitària d'Infermeria Sant Pau.

Bringing Different Perspectives Together

The Nursing Care Research Group currently brings together nurses from Hospital de Sant Pau, the Escola Universitària d'Infermeria Sant Pau, and the Fundació Puigvert, with expertise in three areas: clinical care, education, and management. Those who provide direct patient care, those who train future nurses, and those who organize healthcare services view the same reality from different perspectives. This diversity enriches both the questions the group seeks to answer and the approaches it takes to address them.

These combined perspectives have given rise to six research areas. Some are cross-cutting, such as innovation and improving the quality of nursing care, patient safety, and pain management, which are relevant across all hospital units. Others focus on mental health and well-being, or intensive care and critically ill patients. Nursing education completes the picture, as studying how professionals are trained is also a way to improve the care they will ultimately provide.

Mentorship

A strong scientific track record is also measured by the ability to train the next generation of researchers. Over the past two years, more doctoral students have begun their dissertations within the group, and some are supervised by researchers who are themselves members of the group.

“Seeing that we have more doctoral students and that some are already being supervised within the group shows us that we conduct research and know how to pass on our knowledge. We want those starting out to find supervisors here who understand their context, because training new researchers is the best way to advance nursing research,” says Dr. Mas. For this reason, one of the group’s future goals is to continue strengthening this generational renewal, with more doctoral degree holders on the team and more dissertations supervised.

Working Toward Consolidated Research Group Status

The new recognition is a milestone but also a starting point. The goal is to achieve consolidated research group status in the coming years, and the group has already outlined a path forward.

The first step is to increase publications in indexed journals, prioritizing those in the first and second quartiles of nursing or related categories. The second is to secure competitive research funding, with more projects receiving grants through regional, national, and international public funding calls. The third is to expand research networks through more collaborative projects with established research groups, both within IR Sant Pau and at other institutions.