Strategies to Improve Nursing Research

The National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) funds and promotes research into building the scientific foundation for clinical practice, the prevention of disease and disability, managing and eliminating symptoms caused by illness and enhancing end-of-life care. Strategies to improve research include regularly funding multiple qualified grant recipients, encouraging interdisciplinary approaches and the further development of technology.

Nursing Research Grants

• The NINR awards about a dozen research grants per year to qualified medical facilities and institutions. Researchers are required to be knowledgeable in their fields of study and able to build on previous project findings. The grants are for projects up to four years in length and with annual budgets ranging from a few thousand dollars to over $2 million. NINR requests for grant applications include increasing the quality of research in advanced heart failure and palliative care, as well as HIV/AIDS risk-avoidance.

  The Department of Health and Human Services, the Health Resources and Services Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention award funds to improve nursing research. Millions of dollars in funds are awarded by such federal agencies each year through hundreds of grants. Strategies to increase the quality of research include funding personnel and project supplements at disease prevention centers, providing nursing faculty loans and assessing the impact of the health industry on communities.

  Project proposals must specify the project personnel, objectives, and how the objectives will be achieved. All project managers are required to submit final grant reports to the funding agencies, detailing the work accomplished, measuring the results and contributing to a growing body of evolving research.

Interdisciplinary Approaches

• Medical professionals with diverse areas of expertise are encouraged to collaborate on research projects, maximizing the opportunity for achieving objectives. Project proposals are viewed most favorably when they consist of multiple agencies and organizations. Medical personnel with backgrounds in areas such as general practice and psychiatry, as well as experts from fields such as sociology and human resources, partner to improve nursing research.

  Social and cultural markers are taken into account in evaluating the nursing profession. The number of nurses in the U.S. is monitored, along with their ages and levels of education, in developing policies to improve their levels of research and outcomes.

Developing Technology

• Grant projects develop technology for nursing research, such as creating innovative tools for the analysis of data generated within the Library of Integrated Network-based Cellular Signatures (LINCS) program. The goal of the LINCS program is to build and provide a long-term resource for generating validated responses of different cell types. Recipients of grant funds improve and add to the base of approaches available for researchers using LINCS, the objective being to make the tools and approaches widely available for use within the research community.