The undergraduate student as research assistant: promoting scientific inquiry.

As nurse scientists, we must find a way to excite our undergraduate students about research so that they will value it and include it as an integral part of their practice. The ambience surrounding scientific inquiry cannot be captured from readings and classroom activities alone, but must be modelled by enthusiastic faculty who are actively involved in research. Two exemplary cases involving the use of undergraduate students as integral members of faculty-directed research teams are described.