Bettering health care delivery. Streamlining health care costs. Improving safety using patient-centered outcomes. Targeting and improving care for specific populations. The National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists announced today that it will focus its research agenda on these topics, and more, for the next five years.
The task force identified six areas for the 2017-2022 Research Agenda. The top two are the association’s most strongly supported initiatives and are classified as NACNS’ 2017-2022 Research Priorities:
- Clinical Practice Application (patient-centered outcomes, population health management, and comparative effectiveness)
- Health Care System (delivery, services, costs, safety, nurse-sensitive indicators)
- Health Care Policy (scope of practice, regulation)
- Health Promotion (wellness, disease and symptom management, quality of life, functional status)
- Education (health care provider/students, patients, families, populations [vulnerable, unique], communities)
- Palliative Care Across the Lifespan
“Nursing research builds the scientific foundation for clinical practice. Clinical nurse specialists are uniquely positioned to conduct and analyze research in all aspects of health care. Our work covers the entire spectrum of care – with patients and families, among nurses at the bedside and within health systems,” said NACNS 2017 President Vince Holly, MSN, RN, CCRN, CCNS. “We look forward to better highlighting the frequent contributions clinical nurse specialists make to health care research.”
Clinical nurse specialists are advanced practice registered nurses. They have advanced education and training in physiology, pharmacology and physical assessment and have a particular area of specialty, such as cardiology, oncology, or diabetes. Their skills and expertise allow them to identify gaps in health care delivery, design and implement interventions, and then assess and evaluate interventions to improve overall health care delivery. There are more than 72,000 clinical nurse specialists working in the United States.
The association’s research agenda and priorities are the result of NACNS’ Research Priorities Task Force, established in January, 2016. The task force formulated the research agenda and priorities after conducting a literature review, assessing priorities from the National Institute of Nursing Research and other nursing organizations, drafted a model, solicited feedback from NACNS members and Board of Directors and revised the model based on this input.
The members of the Research Priorities task force are:
- Jan Foster, PhD, APRN, CNS, (Chair) President, Nursing Inquiry & Intervention, Inc. in Woodlands, Texas;
- Cynthia Bautista, PhD, RN, CNRN, Associate Professor, Egan School of Nursing, Fairfield University in Fairfield, Conn.;
- Kathleen Ellstrom, PhD, RN, ACNS-BC, Pulmonary Clinical Nurse Specialist, VA Healthcare System in Grand Terrace, Calif.;
- Peggy Kalowes, PhD, RN, CNS, FAHA, Director, Nursing Research, Innovation and EBP, Long Beach Memorial Miller Children’s Hospital in Long Beach, Calif.;
- Jennifer Manning, DNS, APRN, ACNS-BC, CNE, Acting Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs, LSUHSC School of Nursing in New Orleans, La.;
- Tracy Ann Pasek, DNP, RN, MSN, CCNS, CCRN, CIMI, Advanced Practice Nurse, Pain/Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC in Pittsburgh, Pa.; and
- Costellia Talley, PhD, ACNS-BC, Associate Professor, Florida M&M University in Tallahassee, Fla.