Involving undergraduate nursing students in a multidisciplinary research project: strategy for implementation, first results and future perspectives.

Introduction: Engaging undergraduate students in faculty-led research is documented as a mutually valuable experience [1,2]. The VASelfCare project started in January 2018 (); it aims to develop and test a software prototype with a virtual assistant, to facilitate self-care of older people with type 2 diabetes. The project entails the involvement of undergraduate nursing students at the consortium's lead Institution (ESEL). The purpose of this paper is to describe the strategy for students' participation and present its first results. Materials and methods: The implementation strategy was informed by prior experience of the research team and relevant literature. A call for applications was launched within ESEL, targeting 2nd to 4th year students. The call provided information about the project, the required student profile and the selection process. In this early phase, participation consisted of expanding the literature review on features of virtual assistant softwares. After an initial meeting, each student was assigned a specific task. Students worked in pairs and presented their work in two meetings with the multidisciplinary research team, scheduled over the course of roughly two months. Students' opinion was ascertained at the end of this phase by means of an anonymous questionnaire, comprised by four open questions and five closed questions. Results: All the 12 applications were selected. There was a predominance of 3rd year students (n = 5). Of the 11 students who completed this phase, six responded to the questionnaire and consented to the use of data in publications related to the project. Participation was described in one word using terms such as "challenging" and "interesting". Students perceived their involvement as an opportunity to contact with research and innovation, to develop competencies and to network with students with different background. Views on less positive aspects pertained mainly to the small exposure to research. Students' expressed willingness to be involved in more phases of the project and to be informed about its results. They unanimously agreed (6/6) that participation contributed to improving their understanding of novel situations in a different scientific area and to the development of skills in scientific literature analysis. Discussion and conclusions: Thorough recruitment, assigning specific tasks, peer support and regular meetings were an effective strategy for involving students. This is in line with previous findings [2], and may be of help to researchers in other institutions and disciplines. Overall, students' opinion on their experience were favourable. Future perspectives include awarding course credit for students' participation, to enable more in-depth involvement without overloading their schedule and to further stimulate their interest in research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]