Leanne Cummins PhD candidate, Australian Catholic University, Blacktown, NSW Australia
Kate Dawson Lecturer in midwifery, Faculty of Health Science/School of Nursing, Midwifery, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Victoria
Sara Bayes Adjunct professor in midwifery, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Victoria
Valerie Wilson Professor, person-centred healthcare, Ingham Institute, Liverpool, NSW Australia
Shahla Meedya Associate professor (midwifery), Australian Catholic University, Blacktown, NSW Australia
Why you should read this article:

• To make use of practice development principles to guide facilitation and engage group discussion

• To understand how these principles can help maintain the quality of the data collected by different research methods

• To appreciate the telephone as a valuable medium for recruiting participants and collecting data

Background Researchers conducting studies involving pregnant women often find recruitment challenging. The COVID-19 pandemic added further complexity to studies requiring face-to-face participation.

Aim To demonstrate how to maintain the principles of practice development (PD) when a study must switch from face-to-face to remote methods of collecting data.

Discussion The number of participants in the authors’ study increased when they moved from face-to-face to telephone engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic. They continued using PD principles when they changed method and the quality of the data they collected remained constant, even once lockdown restrictions were in place.

Conclusion PD principles can offer ways for nurse researchers to engage, collaborate with and reflect with people for research projects, including when constraints compete with participation. They can also assist researchers in optimising and maintaining recruitment and data collection when face-to-face research methods are impossible.

Implications for practice The telephone can be a valuable alternative medium for recruiting participants and collecting data when face-to-face methods are impossible to use. PD principles can be maintained and response rates and participation may even be greater when using it.

Nurse Researcher. 32, 2, 22-30. doi: 10.7748/nr.2024.e1898

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

Correspondence

leanne.cummins@health.nsw.gov.au

Conflict of interest

None declared

Cummins L, Dawson K, Bayes S et al (2024) Using the principles of practice development to address challenges in recruitment and data collection when face-to-face methods are unavailable. Nurse Researcher. doi: 10.7748/nr.2024.e1898

Published online: 29 February 2024

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