THE MANAGEMENT OF A MULTISITE STUDY

Large-scale multisite nursing research projects require careful coordi nation of a variety of research tasks, Many nursing studies include ca regivers and support staff as well as patients and their significant o thers as subjects, resulting in the need to develop and implement many different protocols, This article presents an implementation framewor k for multisite clinical studies incorporating the knowledge gained du ring an investigation of patient-centered care that was conducted at 1 7 hospitals involving contact with patients, unit managers, registered nurses, and other hospital personnel, Five areas of key research task s are addressed: general systems design, public relations, human resou rce issues, data quality assurances, and data management, Management o f a multisite nursing research study, including issues related to recr uitment and roles of project staff, training, and key research tasks, are discussed. (C) 1996 by W.B. Saunders Company