The nursing profession is an evidence based practice which has made nursing research an important factor in nursing growth and development from the time of Florence Nightingale until present day. Nursing research is the process of gathering evidence that supports nursing practice. The five key historical developments in nursing research discussed in this paper will include; the work of Florence Nightingale, the research work of Dr. Patricia Grady, the development of nursing educational programs through nursing research, the American Nursing Association (ANA, 2007), nursing research funding, and the development of the Healthy People 2010.
Nursing research is an essential element of the nursing profession. Nursing research has changed over the last 150 years. The first key historical development is the work of Florence Nightingale who is well-known as the pioneer of nursing. In 1859 Nightingale published Notes on Nursing. It describes her early research interest in the importance of a healthy environment by studying aspects such as ventilation, cleanliness, purity of water, and diet to determine the influence on patient’s health which was used to make significant changes in society.
Another analysis in which Nightingale is more remembered for is her study of soldier morbidity and mortality data during the Crimean War. The research enabled Nightingale to change the attitudes of the military and society toward the care of the sick. Mortality rates dropped from 43% to 2% in the Crimean War as a result of Nightingales study. Florence Nightingale’s research was the beginning of nursing research (Burns & Groves, 2007). Another nursing researcher is Dr. Patricia Grady. Dr.
Grady is the director of the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) and is considered one of the early nurse researchers. She was a shock trauma nurse in the 1970s and mostly worked with patients who had strokes and serious head injuries. She realized that few medical treatments eased these conditions and that new approaches would be essential for improving healthcare. Better therapies would require further research so she returned to graduate school to study physiology and the nervous system, specifically addressing in her experiments the causes and consequences of stroke.
Dr. Grady also studied the physical and physiological changes in the nervous and circulatory system after strokes; and she explored what could be done to halt further damage (Guyer, 2006). The development of nursing education programs through nursing research is another key historical development in nursing research. The Rockefeller foundation instituted and funded a group of 50 people to discuss the problems with preparing nurses for the field of public health. The results of this study became known as the Goldmark Report.
The report concluded that the average hospital training school had a lack of conformity to standards, casual and uncorrelated instruction, and the health and strength of students were often sacrificed to practical hospital agencies. The majority of schools were inadequate for the preparation of high grade nurses (Varney, 1998). Higher standards of nursing education were sought as a result of this report. In 1923 Teachers College at Columbia University offered the first educational doctoral program.
Yale University offered the first master’s degree in nursing in 1929. Funding for nursing research is another key historical development. Researchers would not be able to perform studies without proper funding. The American Nurses Foundation which is the research, education and charitable affiliate of the ANA reports that funding for research is received from various sources. Funding has been received from private foundations such as W. K. Kellogg for a community coalition-building project and Robert Wood Johnson for smoking cessation.
Other organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Adolescent School Health, the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration, are examples of federal funding. Nursing research projects focus on nurse staffing, workplace health and safety, continuing competency, and patient safety. Research groups rely on grants and funds that are awarded through private organizations or federal funding (American Nursing Foundation, 2007).
The next key historical development in nursing research and is the American Nursing Association (ANA). The ANA is composed of professional nurses dedicated to the promotion of health and the care of this sick and has served as the forum in which the nation’s critical health issues have been discussed throughout the last century (Brodie & Keeling, 2007). The ANA initiated a 5-year study on nursing functions and activities. The findings of this study completed in 1959 were used to develop statements on function, standards, and qualifications for professional nurses.
Nursing research conducted by the ANA has also provided a basis for the development of specialty groups such as pediatrics, community health, psychiatric-mental health, obstetrics, and medical-surgical standards of care. The ANA has played an integral role in nursing research for many years (American Nursing Association, 2007). The last key historical development in nursing research that will be discussed in this paper is the development of Healthy People 2010. Published by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Healthy People 2010 increased the visibility of and identified priorities for health promotion research.
Healthy People 2010 are a set of health objectives that builds on initiatives pursued over the past two decades and was developed through a broad consultation process, built on the best scientific knowledge and designed to measure programs over time. According to the Healthy People 2010 Midcourse Review this plan provides a set of 10-year evidence based objectives for improving the health of all Americans. The Healthy People 2010 plan covers 28 focus areas with 467 specific objectives. There are two overall goals of Healthy People 2010. The first goal is to increase quality and years of healthy life.
The second goal is to eliminate health disparities. Two example focus areas include; reduction in the number of new cancer cases as well as the illness, disability, and death caused by cancer, and the promotion of health of people with disabilities, prevent secondary conditions, and eliminate disparities between people with and without disabilities in the United States population. Healthy People 2010 are a key historical development in nursing research and is also a key to our future development in nursing research (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and United States Department of Health and Human Services, n. . ).
Research has been a part of nursing since the early years when Florence Nightingale began studying the environmental influences of a patient’s health. Today nursing research allows many issues to be studied and improved. The future of nursing research is promising in the area of health prevention and promotion as well as improving the care provided to the sick. Nursing research will continue be an important element in the future of nursing.