If you were asked to name three pieces of medical research that demonstrated "impact" what would you come up with? The discovery of penicillin? Cloning? The mapping of the human genome? Advances in stem cell therapy? Now suppose I asked you to name three pieces of nursing research with similar impact? Anything...?
In 2009 the Royal College of Nursing Research Society celebrated it's 50th anniversary by asking the same question. The names that garnered the most votes were Felicity Stockwell (1972), Patricia Benner (1984) and Jack Hayward (1975) and the overall winner was Florence Nightingale (1859). Thus, what is perceived as the most influential nursing research of the last fifty years is actually 150 years old. I'd even go so far as to suggest that what Nightingale's work has is longevity rather than influence. Are there no current nursing studies that can demonstrate impact? Doesn't look like it!
Why is this a problem? Across the UK academics are becoming increasingly exercised about this notion of impact since the next evaluation of research output (Research Excellence Framework) will be focusing upon this very thing. This is a particular challenge for nursing since the high quality research from this discipline can take a considerable time to translate into changes in clinical practice. In addition, it can take a long time for a piece of work to attain a critical mass of citations which are seen as further validation of the importance of the work. Publish a paper about smashing protons together in the LHC and your paper will achieve mega citations, come up with a useful way of assessing quality in an acute pain service and pray your citation rate reaches double figures before 2014.
This doesn't bode well for nursing research unless we find a way to redefine "impact"
For a complementary podcast go to our sister site http://researchzebrachat.podbean.com
In 2009 the Royal College of Nursing Research Society celebrated it's 50th anniversary by asking the same question. The names that garnered the most votes were Felicity Stockwell (1972), Patricia Benner (1984) and Jack Hayward (1975) and the overall winner was Florence Nightingale (1859). Thus, what is perceived as the most influential nursing research of the last fifty years is actually 150 years old. I'd even go so far as to suggest that what Nightingale's work has is longevity rather than influence. Are there no current nursing studies that can demonstrate impact? Doesn't look like it!
Why is this a problem? Across the UK academics are becoming increasingly exercised about this notion of impact since the next evaluation of research output (Research Excellence Framework) will be focusing upon this very thing. This is a particular challenge for nursing since the high quality research from this discipline can take a considerable time to translate into changes in clinical practice. In addition, it can take a long time for a piece of work to attain a critical mass of citations which are seen as further validation of the importance of the work. Publish a paper about smashing protons together in the LHC and your paper will achieve mega citations, come up with a useful way of assessing quality in an acute pain service and pray your citation rate reaches double figures before 2014.
This doesn't bode well for nursing research unless we find a way to redefine "impact"
For a complementary podcast go to our sister site http://researchzebrachat.podbean.com
