The management of a multisite study.
Large-scale multisite nursing research projects require careful coordination of a variety of research tasks. Many nursing studies include caregivers and support staff as well as patients and their significant others as subjects, resulting in the need to develop and implement many different protocols. This article presents an implementation framework for multisite clinical studies incorporating the knowledge gained during an investigation of patient-centered care that was conducted at 17 hospitals involving contact with patients, unit managers, registered nurses, and other hospital personnel. Five areas of key research tasks are addressed: general systems design, public relations, human resource issues, data quality assurances, and data management. Management of a multisite nursing research study, including issues related to recruitment and roles of project staff, training, and key research tasks, are discussed.