"Cookie Caper" to teach research strategies Published May 7, 2013 By Capt. Iesiah Harris 81st Surgical Operations Squadron KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- Keesler Medical Center nurses are using a fun way to introduce basic research strategies to staff nurses and medical technicians. The 81st Medical Group Evidence-Based Practice Nursing Research Function members will conduct a "Cookie Caper" from 1-3 p.m, May 8 during which 52-60 randomly-chosen nurses and medical technicians will evaluate the taste, texture, moisture and appearance of three different chocolate chip cookie brands. Data collectors will visit multiple areas throughout the hospital to solicit participants who will review and sign an informed-consent document prior to participation. Each subject is required to taste a cookie, rinse with water and taste another cookie. After all cookies have been tasted, the subjects will complete a questionnaire which will be forwarded to 81st MDG statistician Suizhao Wang for analysis. Study findings will be used to enhance research-process participant comprehension as well as develop future Air Force researchers. Col. Teresa Ryan, a nurse researcher and Individual Mobilization Augmentee to the 81st MDG chief nurse, suggested this idea to Keesler nurses. She had read an article about nurses at Randolph Hospital in Asheboro, N.C., a 145-bed, rural hospital, who recognized that "research is not limited to just scientists in a lab." In the winter of 2006, Randolph Hospital developed a nursing research function as part of the hospital's shared governance council. The primary goal of this group was to help bedside nurses better understand research and involve them in the research process. Currently, Keelser's Evidence-Based Practice Nursing Research Function is delving into research endeavors at the lowest levels, and exploring less formal and rigorous projects. While most research councils focus on research studies, the Keesler team's goal is to strategically expose nurses and technicians to the research process. Eventually, nurses and technicians will complete research studies to enhance the scientific body of nursing knowledge. "The 'Cookie Caper' is an effective, but fun, teaching strategy to present basic statistical concepts and allow all nurses and medical technicians a hands-on project to reduce phobias about research," Ryan explained. "Nurses often view research as too complex to understand or conduct and the 'Cookie Caper' provides a very simple review of research procedures. We hope to increase our Keesler nurses' and technicians' interest in using and engaging in research as we move to patient care that is based on the evidence derived from rigorous scientific inquiry." The "Cookie Caper" concept was established on the origin of the chocolate-chip cookie, also known as the Toll House Cookie. It was accidentally invented by Ruth Graves Wakefield in the 1930s. Ruth and her husband Kenneth owned the Toll House Inn, near Whitman, Mass. Wakefield was making chocolate cookies and ran out of regular baker's chocolate, so she used a Nestle semi-sweet chocolate bar cut into bits in a butter cookie recipe instead, thinking the chocolate pieces would melt. They didn't and the chocolate chip cookie was born! She and Andrew Nestle formed a partnership soon after and Nestle developed a semisweet chip to use in the cookie. Wakefield's recipe was printed on the back of the chip package and the cookies have been an American favorite ever since. The chocolate chip cookie is the official state cookie of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Chocolate chip cookies are made with sugar, flour, eggs, semi-sweet baker's chocolate and butter. While the Toll House recipe is considered the standard, the ingredients can be changed to give the cookies slightly different properties. Because the chocolate chip cookie is so well-liked, many bakeries bake the cookies for sale in stores and many stores have their own brand of cookie as well. With all the different brands of cookies available, how can people decide which brand is the best? That's what the Keesler "caper" event intends to learn.