The Nominal Group Technique: Generating consensus in nursing research

The purpose of this article is to describe the Nominal Group Technique and its application as a consensus-generating approach in nursing research. The approach incorporates face-to-face meetings to explore opinions, generate ideas and determine priorities. We illustrate and explain the Nominal Group Technique process based on a study designed to develop a nursing student clinical placement (clinical practicum) evaluation tool. Advantages of the approach include creative face-to-face discussions with minimal resource demands. The Nominal Group Technique is beneficial and can be used to achieve consensus in nursing research, but a lack of anonymity may preclude the process in some investigations.