Development and application of a nursing research demand order service model based on the “demand–resource” linkage mechanism

The study also recorded high post-order satisfaction among clinical nurses and postgraduate-prepared nurses, although its single-institution design cannot establish that the model alone caused the reported research outputs or changes in satisfaction. Fifteen of the projects received funding at various levels. The investigators developed the model to address three challenges they identified in nursing research: insufficient research capacity among clinical nurses, weak integration between nursing research resources and clinical practice, and slow advancement of high-quality nursing development.

Grounded in the Resource-Based View, the approach treated nurses with postgraduate degrees in nursing as research resources and used an office automation system as its operating platform at the tertiary hospital. Its “demand–resource” linkage connected clinical research needs with designated postgraduate-prepared nurses through a closed sequence: order initiation by clinical nurses, order review and assignment by the Nursing Department, order evaluation and acceptance by postgraduate-prepared nurses, service implementation, and service evaluation with incentive feedback. During implementation, the Nursing Department received 148 service orders.

Eight were declined after assessment and 140 were completed, so not every submitted request proceeded through all stages of the workflow. The completed orders were fulfilled by 34 postgraduate-prepared nurses. Clinical nurses initiated the requests, the Nursing Department reviewed and assigned them, and postgraduate-prepared nurses then evaluated and accepted the assignments before providing the requested service.

After each order, the office automation system recorded research outputs and satisfaction using a 0–100 visual analog scale-like rating system. Of the papers, 15 appeared in general academic journals, 14 in Chinese core scientific and technological journals, and nine in SCI-indexed journals. A total of 15 projects received funding at various levels.

Mean satisfaction among clinical nurses increased from 96.24 to 97.54, while the corresponding mean among postgraduate-prepared nurses rose from 97.11 to 97.83. Accordingly, the findings show that substantial research production and consistently high satisfaction occurred alongside the structured service, not that the model independently produced those outcomes. The evaluation was limited to one tertiary hospital, one office automation-based management system and a service delivered by 34 postgraduate-prepared nurses over two years.

The authors noted that further studies are needed to examine the model’s applicability in different healthcare settings. Within the reported institution, however, the approach organized nursing research support into a measurable workflow: clinical nurses submitted requests, departmental staff reviewed and assigned them, specialist nurses accepted and completed them, and evaluations captured outputs and user feedback. The study therefore offers a practical implementation example for coordinating nursing research capacity inside a hospital, while its outputs and satisfaction findings should be interpreted as observations from that single setting rather than definitive evidence of effectiveness across the wider health system.

Subject of Research: Evaluation of a hospital-based nursing research demand–resource service model

Article Title: Development and application of a nursing research demand order service model based on the “demand–resource” linkage mechanism

Article References: Ma, Y., Li, T., Chen, X., & Wan, L. (2026). Development and application of a nursing research demand order service model based on the “demand–resource” linkage mechanism. BMC Medical Education. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-026-10325-4

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12909-026-10325-4

Keywords: nursing research, research support, clinical nurses, postgraduate-prepared nurses, hospital management, office automation, research outputs, project funding, participant satisfaction, China, Development, application