Table 3 Content analysis of participants’ RCEP experience

Meaning of the educational experience

Lighthouse of my heart

“This education has been a guide for how I should conduct my research. It has been more than 10 years since I had completed my master’s degree program, and I have been wondering where to start for a long time.”

Inner stimulant

“A nurse like me became a mentor and led the entire schedule, which really motivated me. Participating in the educational program gave me confidence that I could conduct research too.”

Power to challenge myself

“While working as a clinical nurse for 25 years, I fully felt that research was important to nursing, but I could not do it alone. This training gave me the strength to take on challenges.”

Factors facilitating RCEP participation

Full support and encouragement of mentors

“It was because of the interest and support of the mentor that I was able to participate in the educational program until the end. When the training day approached, they notified us of the schedule through text message and group KakaoTalk, and they checked our progress.”

Interest from colleagues

“Since we participated in the training together, we discussed each other’s areas of interest and shared our progress, so I thought I should work harder too. In particular, I received more help when collaborating as a team of four or five people.”

Use of new learning tools

“As your education progresses, there are steps to take according to your research topic. When I post my areas of interest and questions on the Padlet’s large window, the content is created like a Post-It, and comments from mentors and colleagues are added. Although it is my research topic, it was a great source of strength to think about it together rather than worrying alone.”

“In fact, we are a culture where no one will ask a question during a lecture. I liked that posting questions on the Padlet was much less burdensome, and the mentor personally answered them.”

Clinical nurse educators serving as assistants

“Depending on the lecture topic, more nurse educators were added to help. Those like me who were unable to follow the lecture were assisted separately. I would have given up if I had been alone.”

Barriers to participation

Unstable internet connections at workplaces

“It was time to learn how to download and use the EndNote program. When I connected to the same place at the same time and downloaded it, it didn’t work properly.”

Limited literature search databases

“It has been a while since I completed my master’s degree program, so it’s hard for us to access the literature search database for a fee. All the participants shared and used one mentor ID.”

Problems with individual laptop specifications

“I practiced while following the mentor’s lecture, but my laptop was old, so I missed the lecture because it took a lot of buffering time.”

Education schedules overlapping with hospital events or external schedules

“It is officially education time, but during this period, the hospital’s electronic medical record system was completely reorganized, and my colleagues were struggling with their work. There were days when I could not attend the program.”

“The unit manager told me to go to the educational session, but I could not because it was the day of an infection control event at the hospital.”

Modifications for future RCEP operation

Appropriate sessions and times

“I am very satisfied with the training taking place every two weeks. Two weeks was enough time for me to think about what I had learned with little psychological burden and to find my research topic.”

“I really liked the opportunity to learn about research for about an hour after work. If the lecture time had been long, I think I would have been tired.”

Impressive new research methods

“When I was studying research methods in my master’s course, I never heard of network analysis. It was impressive to learn about a new research methodology in this program.”

Preference for face-to-face lectures

“Due to the COVID-19 situation, many educational sessions aren’t taking place face-to-face. I hope that older people like us will continue to give face-to-face lectures as they do now. We could not concentrate when we used Zoom.”

Preference for small teams

“I think that if every four to five nurses with a will for research were assigned a professional mentor who continued to manage them, they would have achieved good results after completing the program.”

Request for collaborative research opportunities with professors at nursing colleges and hospitals

“In fact, nursing college professors are the ones who need to do research. While we are in practice, we have many research topics, but it is difficult to develop them into research. I hope there will be a forum where professors and nurses can regularly discuss their fields of interest.”