When was the last time you thought…
- I wonder what we could do differently to discharge patients more quickly.
- I wonder when patients are most likely to fall on our unit.
- I wonder why some patients miss follow-up appointments.
- I wonder how we can improve patient satisfaction with discharge instructions.
- I wonder where new nurses need extra support during orientation.
These questions may sound like casual observations, but they represent something important: clinical curiosity. In some cases, the answer already exists; we simply haven’t found it yet. Other times, no one has asked the question before, at least not out loud. In either case, the willingness to pause, question current practice, and seek a better answer is the foundation of a culture of inquiry in nursing. That’s where nursing research begins.
What Is a Culture of Inquiry in Nursing?
A culture of inquiry is a professional environment in which nurses are encouraged to question existing practices, explore available evidence, examine outcomes, and contribute ideas for improving care. In these environments, asking questions is not viewed as criticism or resistance. It is recognized as an essential part of nursing practice, professional growth, and organizational learning.
A strong culture of inquiry encourages nurses to ask:
- Why do we perform this process this way?
- What does the available evidence tell us?
- Are we achieving the outcomes we expected?
- What are patients and families experiencing?
- Is there a safer, more effective, or more efficient approach?
These questions can lead to quality improvement, evidence-based practice, innovation, or nursing research. Collectively, these approaches fall within the broader practice of clinical inquiry.
Clinical Inquiry Does Not Always Mean Nursing Research
As nurses, we tend to think of research as a mysterious, convoluted process that requires a PhD and a lab with bubbling, smoking test tubes. Even mentioning the word “research” initiates the “MEGO” (My Eyes Glaze Over) Syndrome. Yet, if we simply listen to ourselves and our colleagues when we say, “I wonder,” or “There has to be a better way,” we’d discover that these moments of curiosity are where meaningful research begins.
Clinical inquiry is the broader process of questioning practice, searching for evidence, examining data, and determining the best way to investigate or address a clinical concern. Depending on what is already known, an inquiry may lead to:
- Quality improvement: Improving a process or outcome within a particular healthcare setting
- Evidence-based practice: Applying and evaluating the best available evidence in a specific clinical context
- Nursing research: Systematically generating new, generalizable knowledge
Understanding which approach fits the question is essential. CHCM’s resource on differentiating quality improvement, evidence-based practice, and nursing research provides a more detailed explanation of these distinctions.
The important point is that nurses do not need to know where a question will lead before asking it. Curiosity comes first. The appropriate method comes later.
How Nursing Curiosity Can Influence Patient Care
One example of how curiosity led to research occurred in the early 2000s when some nurses wondered when and why patients use call lights. After finding little evidence to answer their question, they started thinking big; like the whole United States big! For two weeks they collected data from 27 nursing units in 14 different hospitals to determine when and why patients use call lights (Meade et al, 2006). Then they implemented rounding at set intervals. Their findings indicated that routine rounding, at either one- or two-hour intervals, reduced call light use, reduced patient falls, and increased patient satisfaction with nursing care.
Although purposeful rounding has been endorsed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI, n.d.) as a “model for improvement” measure, constraints during the COVID-19 pandemic surely impacted compliance with purposeful rounding and the five “Ps”: pain, personal needs (potty, hydration, nutrition), positioning, possessions (e.g., call light, phone, water in reach), and prevention (safety hazards). Some data indicate improvement in safety measures since the pandemic. Hmmmm, I wonder. What percentage of hospitals, or units within hospitals, are back to pre-COVID levels of purposeful rounding?
Everyday Innovation Can Also Lead to Inquiry
Many innovations begin as practical solutions, a better way, developed by point-of-care clinicians. An example of a “better way” is the patient whiteboard, a dry erase board commonly used in patient rooms to communicate the date, physicians and nurses providing care, scheduled procedures, mealtimes, and patient-specific goals. Nurses adopted whiteboards because they recognized patients and families needed better communication about their daily care.
As whiteboards became more common, nurses began asking important questions. Do they improve patient understanding? Do they improve communication? Are they worth the extra time? These questions led to multiple studies that helped identify both the benefits and the barriers of whiteboards. Research validated the usefulness of whiteboards and the challenges of keeping them updated (Law et al., 2023; Lee et al, 2024). The challenges led to continued innovation in the form of digital whiteboards that interface with patients’ electronic health records. And that, of course, leads to yet another question: How can we best help nurses use these tools effectively?
Why Nurses Ask the Questions that Matter
Nurses spend more time with patients than any other healthcare profession. We see things that others on the healthcare team might never notice. We see frustrations, delays, what works, what doesn’t work, and how to work around challenges. Nurses also recognize unanticipated outcomes.
We have a unique perspective, both of patients and the healthcare environment. We see what others miss. Our unique perspective gives us an innate ability to identify questions worth studying. Yet valuable questions can easily be lost when nurses lack the time, psychological safety, structure, or support to pursue them.
That is why building a culture of inquiry is an organizational responsibility, not simply an individual expectation. Research and inquiry are more likely to thrive when leaders create clear pathways for nurses to share questions, access evidence, receive mentorship, and participate in scholarly work.
What Happens After a Nurse Says, “I Wonder?”
Imagine this: You leave work after a typical busy shift thinking, “I wonder why it takes so long to discharge patients on Fridays.” You might not realize it, but that wonder is the first step in the research process. Next, you ask your colleagues if they’ve noticed the same thing. Everyone agrees with you, so you begin searching the literature.
Finding existing evidence can be a bit like a treasure hunt. Start close to home. Your nursing professional development practitioner/educator, evidence-based practice council, librarian, or research department may already know where to begin. If those resources aren’t available, consider reaching out to faculty at a nearby nursing school or college. Many universities welcome opportunities for students to explore real clinical questions. Finally, many peer-reviewed journals now publish open-access articles that are freely available online. Just be sure to use professional journals that require manuscripts to undergo peer review before publication.
If you find an existing answer, a quality improvement or evidence-based practice (EBP) project might be indicated. You can breathe a sigh of relief when you realize you don’t have to launch a research study every time you’re curious. If the answer doesn’t exist, or if the evidence is inconsistent, you might have identified a gap in what we know. Knowing the difference is where experienced research partners can help.
How Nurse Leaders Can Encourage a Spirit of Inquiry
Nurse leaders play an essential role in determining whether curiosity grows or quietly disappears. Leaders can strengthen a culture of inquiry by:
- Responding thoughtfully when nurses question current practice
- Creating psychologically safe opportunities to share ideas
- Making research and evidence resources easier to access
- Connecting nurses with experienced mentors
- Providing structured time for inquiry and scholarly work
- Recognizing participation in QI, EBP, and research
- Creating pathways for nurses to disseminate findings
- Connecting clinical questions with organizational priorities
- Supporting professional governance councils in reviewing practice questions
The goal is not to turn every question into a formal project. It is to ensure that meaningful questions have somewhere to go.
Start Wondering Today
Nursing research isn’t something reserved for universities or scientists in white lab coats. Every meaningful study simply starts with curiosity. Start today by wondering (and asking your colleagues to wonder) the following:
- What can we do differently?
- When is the best time to intervene?
- Why is this happening?
- How can we improve?
- Where should we focus our efforts?
While these are seemingly common, simple questions, they’re filled with wondering. Every improvement in nursing began the same way; with someone saying, “I wonder…”
Think about it…. Tomorrow, somewhere in a hospital, clinic, long-term care facility, school of nursing, or community health agency, a nurse will quietly say, “I wonder….” Most people will hear it as casual conversation. But history suggests those simple words might be the beginning of the next quality initiative, EBP improvement, or research study that changes patient care.
Listen for those moments of curiosity. Better yet, write them down. Today’s “I wonder…” might become tomorrow’s evidence.
Strengthen Nursing Inquiry with the Right Support
Curiosity may begin with an individual nurse, but sustainable research capability requires organizational support, mentorship, and structure. CHCM’s Nursing Research Partnership provides flexible access to experienced nurse scientist guidance. Through customized mentorship and consultation, organizations can refine research questions, strengthen study design, prepare for regulatory review, support dissemination, and build long-term confidence in nurse-led research.
Connect with CHCM to explore how your organization can turn clinical curiosity into meaningful scholarly work.
Frequently Asked Questions
A culture of inquiry is an environment where nurses are encouraged and supported to question current practices, examine evidence, evaluate outcomes, and explore opportunities to improve patient care.
Clinical inquiry is the process of asking questions about nursing practice and systematically seeking answers. It can include quality improvement, evidence-based practice, nursing research, and innovation.
No. A clinical question may be answered through existing evidence, addressed through an evidence-based practice initiative, or explored through a local quality improvement project. Nursing research is appropriate when the goal is to generate new, generalizable knowledge.
Leaders can encourage inquiry by creating psychological safety, responding to nurses’ questions, providing access to evidence and data, offering mentorship, protecting time for scholarly work, and recognizing nurses’ contributions.
The nurse can begin by writing down the observation, discussing it with colleagues, reviewing internal data, searching the literature, and working with an experienced research mentor to refine the question and determine the appropriate approach.
Nurses may need access to a nurse scientist or mentor, research education, literature and data resources, methodological guidance, protected time, leadership support, and assistance with regulatory requirements and dissemination.
Sources
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). (n.d.). Model for improvement: Establishing measures. Retrieved 8/4/2025 from https://www.ihi.org/library/model-for-improvement/establishing-measures
Law, S., Antonacci, R., Ormel, I., Hidalgo, M., Ma, J., Dyachenki, A., Laframboise, D., & Doucette, E. (2023). Engaging patients, families, and professionals at the bedside using whiteboards. Journal of Interprofessional care, 37(3), 400-409. https://doi.org/10.1080/13561820.2022.2074379
Lee, H., Lee, .S, Jo, D (2024). A bedside electronic whiteboard system for patient care in isolation rooms: A scenario-based preliminary study. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 33(12), 4665-4676. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.17461
Meade, C.M., Bursell, A.L., & Ketelsen, L. (2006).Effects of nursing rounds: on patients’ call light use, satisfaction, and safety. American Journal of Nursing,106(9), 58-70. https://doi.org/10.1097/00000446-200609000-0002 9
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