Welcome to this episode of Nursing EDge Unscripted Saga where we journey through the history of nursing education, using stories that connect the past to the present and then our future as we reimagine our teaching, learning, and scholarship. It is often said that the past teaches us about the present; to study history is to study change.
This year Saga gives voice to nursing through the words of our early nurse leaders who organized a discipline and carved out systems to formalize the education of nurses throughout the United States. In Their Own Words illuminates the visionary work of NLN pathfinders who questioned traditional curriculum paradigms and in the process co-created standards for nursing education to build the discipline of nursing. Welcome to part two of the Evolution of Nursing Research.
In part one, we explored the national conversations to attain uniformity in the work of nurses across the country and to standardize the process of education. In part two, we'll explore the research foci in nursing. So let's begin. As you recall, committees evolved to accomplish the work of the NLNE, otherwise known as the National League of Nursing Education. There was much mutuality across committees in topics
surrounding research and accreditation. During the 37th annual meeting in 1929, Mary M. Roberts, chair of the NLNE functions committee, acknowledged that accreditation and research go hand in hand and those committees be set-up in connection with the new research department of the League. During the 1930s, the national conversation and nursing focused on the growing debate around the separation of nursing and medicine as distinct disciplines and the growing need
to identify a body of nursing knowledge. In the 38th annual proceedings in 1930, a report was generated by Dr. Edith Bryan, an assistant professor at the University of California Berkeley, who was appointed by the League to report on methods of research and studies. Dr Bryan noted that an ever-present theme in her research work was nursing's understanding of the pure sciences and how those pure sciences impacted the nursing profession.
Dr .Bryan was advocating for nursing to set up tracks of inquiry into the discipline of nursing. Nurse scientists of the pure science as well as nurse scientists who studied the application of pure science to the work of the nurse.
Continued advocacy for nursing research was the key to drive this conversation and set a solid direction for nursing as a discipline moving forward over the next 10 years and many years to follow, During the 56th proceeding in 1950, in an ongoing conversation, Dr. Genevieve Bixler, a consultant in research at Francis Payne Bolton School of Nursing Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, at that time, was invited to speak on ways in which research in nursing can assist in
the clarification of issues before the profession. She asked the assembly:
The following year, a new nursing research publication was announced: Nursing Research. It would be launched in 1952 under the auspices of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Nursing
and the American Journal of Nursing Company. The journal would contain, "abstracts of research conducted throughout the country in nursing and nursing education, provide periodic reports on research in progress articles on methods of conducting research, and editorial comments, letters to the editor, and similar material of interest to readers."
While federal involvement in nursing research can be traced back to 1946, with the establishment of the Division of Nursing within the Office of the Surgeon General, Public Health Service, it wasn't until 1955 when the first extramural nursing research program was established in the Research Grants and Fellowship Branch of the Division of Nursing Resources, Bureau
of Medical Services. At this time, the National Institutes of Health established the Nursing Research Study Section within the Division of Research Grants to conduct scientific review of the growing volume of applications in this area. In 1960, the Division of Nursing within the Office of the Surgeon General in Public Health Service consolidated into what we today know as HRSA, or the Health Resources and Services
Administration. This agency is responsible for clinical training in the health care professions with the continued goal of federal support to build a foundation for nursing research. In the 60s, many academic institutions established pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellowship programs to train independent nurse investigators. Nursing research programs were also funded and research
information was exchanged across the country. It was in 1983 and 1984 when two federal studies became the impetus for a national center for nursing research, citing that nursing research be included in the mainstream of biomedical and behavioral science and nursing research activities were relevant to the NIH mission. Legislative action established the National Center for Nursing
Research (NCNR) at NIH in April of 1986. Then the National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act of 1993 formally changed the National Center for Nursing Research to what we today know as the National Institute of Nursing Research or NINR. The value of nursing research continues to provide new evidence on the importance and efficacy of the discipline of nursing practices contribution to health and wellness and the evolving science
of learning in nursing education. So much was accomplished by our early visionaries from formalized training of nurses and nurse educators and carving pathways for recognized study and research and nursing continues to evolve yet today. And so the Saga continues and may our Saga continue as we bring to a close this episode of Nursing EDge Unscripted Saga. Thank you for joining us