THE ASSISTANT CONVERGENT RESEARCH APPROACH (ACRA) APPLIED TO A REAL NURSING REALM

Abstract

This paper aims to present the usefulness of the Assistant Convergent Research approach (ACRA) which is characterized by its property of interacting with health assistance. Accordingly, health actions are gradually incorporated to the research process and vice versa. We exemplify the implementation of ACRAthrough its use into a research project that aimed to introduce innovations in the context of practice in which the investigation took place with a group of 12 diabetic patients. ACRA consisted of a useful instrument for the development of the master’s student’s project concerning patients’ health education as well as knowledge building regarding the researched theme. The patients were benefited with a better understanding of their problems and the discovery of healthy ways to deal with their diabetes condition. It also contributed for the theoretical knowledge development regarding the patients’ manners of taking care of themselves as well as preventing related complications to diabetes.

Keywords

• Diabetes mellitus
• Nursing
• Health education