The Wind Beneath Our Wings: A Look at Nursing Research Archive

Nursing research is very serious business. It's what our practice is based on. It's why we do what we do the way we do it. Being new to the concept of nursing research, I learn a lot by writing this column every week. There are some pretty big projects going on out there and I'm amazed at the amount of research that nurses are involved in. I really had no idea. ****************************** One thing I have learned is that there is research ... More »

Does our nurse friend look familiar? Have you been there, done that? Does this cartoon sum up the story of your (professional) life? Did you make the last meeting of your "journal club"? Is your stack of unread AJNs gathering dust in the corner? Oh, and how's the research project going? You don't have time for all of the above? Me, neither. We are so busy practicing nursing that there is very little time for actually ... More »

Improving communication in the intensive care unit reduces stress, anxiety and depression in family members. My first reaction when I read this study, partially funded by the National Institute for Nursing Research, was a rather unprofessional "Duh!". There isn't an ICU nurse out there who would doubt this for a minute. Then I started focusing on the details of the study, which can be found in the New England Journal of Medicine (February 1, 2007). First ... More »

Have you glanced at a copy of the American Journal of Nursing lately? Perhaps you have perused an issue of Nursing Spectrum, or clicked on some articles at Medscape Nursing online. If so, you have been reading the work of National Institute of Nursing Research sponsored researchers! ***** Say you are a nurse researcher looking for funding. What can the NINR provide to you? The extramural funding falls into four categories, two which I will describe here: Research ... More »

Looks like Cherry Ames is doing some research of her own! Wonder where she got her funding? We know it wasn't from the National Institute of Nursing Research. It became part of the National Institutes of Health long after Cherry retired! ***** The amount of information available on the NINR web site is phenomenal. Before I get into the research and training aspects of the Institute, it is important to understand the basis and purpose of the ... More »

I have been conducting a research project over the last year. There is a particular source of stress affecting Registered Nurses that has yet to be quantified, qualified or even discussed in higher academia. It affects one registered nurse at a time, unless there is more than one RN in the family. The more RNs in the family, the more nurses it affects. It is called the "Nuptial Effect". ***** The onset can be up to one year before the ... More »

You just never know what you will find on the internet! I headed over to the National Institute of Nursing Research to see what I might find for today's column. As expected, I found a plethora of information. What I did not expect was to find an online class entitled Developing Nurse Scientists. Described as "general research training for nurse scientists who are in the early stages of their ... More »

"Nurse Researcher". What pops into your mind when you hear that phrase? If you were like me, the phrase conjured up images of old gray-haired stern nurses who hadn't touched a patient in fifty years, sitting with their noses between the pages of musty old library stacks. I seriously thought that without a doctorate in nursing, there was no place for me in nursing research. I was wrong. There is a place for all of us in the research ... More »

If you have ever (a) been a baby or (b) had a baby you probably used a product made by Johnson and Johnson. If you are an RN, you may have seen a poster or two from the Johnson and Johnson "Discover Nursing" campaign If you are a nursing researcher, you may be well aware of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. If you are like me and have just realized ... More »

Many different patient surveys are used to ascertain patient "satisfaction". None of them allow patients to actually evaluate their nursing care. There is a discrepancy between measurement of "patient satisfaction" and a genuine evaluation of nursing care received. But... what exactly constitutes "quality nursing care" from the patient's point of view? No real criteria have been defined. Until now. This new assessment tool is called the "Patient's Assessment of Quality Scale - Acute Care Version (PAQS-ACV). ... More »