History of Nursing Research – In its most common sense, methodology is the study of research methods. However, the term can also refer to the methods themselves or to the philosophical discussion of associated background assumptions. A method is a structured procedure for bringing about a certain goal, like acquiring knowledge or verifying knowledge claims. This normally involves various steps, like choosing a sample, collecting data from this sample, and interpreting the data. The study of methods concerns a detailed description and analysis of these processes. It includes evaluative aspects by comparing different methods.
In this way, their benefits and drawbacks are evaluated, as well as the research goals for which they may be used. These descriptions and evaluations are predicated on philosophical background assumptions; examples include how to conceptualize the phenomena under study and what constitutes evidence in favor of or against them. In its broadest sense, methodology encompasses the discussion of these more abstract issues.
History of Nursing Research
Despite a tradition dating back to Florence Nightingale, nursing research emerged as a systematic study and assessment of nursing issues only in the last 50 years. Nursing education’s shift from hospital training schools to academic settings made possible, even mandated, the development of nursing as a scientific discipline. Through research, nursing challenged its image as a tradition-bound, hands-on vocation and built a distinctive base of nursing knowledge.
The Roots of Nursing Research
Nursing research began when Florence Nightingale accumulated and analyzed complex information about conditions during the Crimean War (1854-56). Although her work illustrated the power of statistics to reform nursing, her insistence that nurses undertake systematic inquiry was ignored by late 19th century training school administrators. Nursing superintendents discovered that the demands of maintaining an efficient nursing service left little time for sustained investigation and inquiry. And in an educational setting emphasizing obedience and rigid discipline, nursing students were not encouraged to question or analyze.
Research at the School of Nursing
The rapid expansion of hospital training schools revealed an alarming lack of standards and practices. By the early 1900s some nursing leaders began investigating workplace conditions and the administration of nursing services and education. Over the next 50 years, national nursing organizations sponsored important surveys, studies, and reports that documented the need for change and demonstrated the value of nursing research. Despite a growing commitment to research, however, the emergence of a patient-oriented science of nursing was decades away.
In the 1950s, under Dean Florence M. Gipe, the University of Maryland School of Nursing took its first steps toward becoming a research institution. Today, research conducted by School of Nursing faculty and doctoral students helps combat serious health problems in the community, leads to the development of new products and interventions for patients, influences health care policy, and strengthens the professional status of nursing.
The School of Nursing offered its first graduate program in 1954; by 1963, students had a choice of six specialties. The expansion of graduate education was both a cause and effect of the rise in faculty credentials. Supported by federal funding, school administrators created faculty training programs, fellowships, and research development projects. They also hired several talented nurse educators who were instrumental in fostering a spirit of inquiry, among them Gladys Sellew, Mary Carl, Ann Cain, Mary Neal, and Evelyn Cohelan.
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