Focus Groups Link Nurse-Led Improvement Projects to Broad Professional Growth

Nurses who took part in a hospital improvement project built around participatory action research reported wide-ranging professional development, from sharper feedback skills and stronger research literacy to improved reflective capacities and subtle shifts in professional identity, according to a qualitative focus group study published in BMC Nursing.

Researchers from a Dutch hospital setting conducted three semi-structured focus groups with nurses who had participated in a practice improvement project that used participatory action research-inspired activities. The study team emphasised that while the improvement project itself drew on participatory action research principles, the focus group study examining its effects was researcher-led and did not follow a participatory action research design.

Analysis of the focus group discussions yielded seventeen distinct themes, which the researchers clustered into five higher-order categories. The first centred on perceived professional development, encompassing feedback skills, research literacy, reflective capacities, personal development, and what the authors describe as subtle professional shifts.

The remaining categories mapped the conditions that shaped that development. Individual enablers formed one cluster, while social and pedagogical enablers formed another, pointing to the role of collaborative and learning-oriented interactions. A third cluster covered organisational enablers and the application of new competencies in daily practice, and a fourth captured barriers that impeded nurses’ growth.

The findings suggest that the development nurses experienced was not uniform but depended heavily on context. Participation was associated with multifaceted professional growth particularly when organisational structures supported protected time for the work, clear goals, and continuity of the improvement process.

Where those supports were absent, engagement proved harder to sustain. The authors highlight the need for leadership support and process clarity as conditions for keeping nurses involved in practice-based research and innovation activities over time.

The study responds to a recognised gap. Retaining nurses requires investment in professional development opportunities, and Care Innovation Centres have been established to integrate learning, innovation, and research within clinical practice. Yet evidence on how participatory action research fosters nurses’ development in hospital settings has remained limited, making this focus group study an early contribution to that specific context.

Because the study is qualitative and descriptive, it captures nurses’ perceptions rather than measuring development outcomes objectively. The authors also note that this paper reports the focus group study alone; the participatory action research-inspired improvement process on which participants reflected is described in a separate publication.

Even with those constraints, the conclusions carry practical weight for hospital leadership. The findings support embedding practice-based learning opportunities within clinical settings as a route to professional development, while underscoring that such initiatives require deliberate organisational scaffolding, including protected time, well-defined goals, continuity, and engaged leadership, to deliver sustained benefits for the nursing workforce.

Subject of Research: Professional development of nurses through participatory action research: a focus group study

Article Title: Professional development of nurses through participatory action research: a focus group study

Article References: De Vos, A. J. B. M., Munten, A. J. M., Toll, D. B., Valckx, M. R. H., & Niessen, T. J. H. (2026). Professional development of nurses through participatory action research: a focus group study. BMC Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-026-05545-4

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12912-026-05545-4

Keywords: Professional, development, nurses, participatory, action, research, focus, group, scientific research