Terri Schmitt PhD, APRN, FNP-BC, Assistant Professor, Florida Atlantic University. Follow Dr. Schmitt on Twitter.
Last April, while sitting in a hotel bar in Washington, D.C.,
typing away on my laptop, I was suddenly interrupted by bright lights and a
camera crew interviewing what appeared to be several television and movie
celebrities. For a Midwestern girl like
myself, this was a once in a lifetime spotting. I later learned that these were
attendees of the National Press Corps dinner and friends joked with me that I
should have interrupted, asked for autographs, etc. However, this brief brush with what the world
defines as fame was not the most moving, memorable, important, or exciting,
event of that day.
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| Mary Naylor, Terri Schmitt, Heather Kelley |
That day and the previous 48 hours, for me, had been a true
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
I was
invited to attend the national conference of the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation’s Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative (INQRI)
program and learn from some of the country’s most prominent nurse researchers
and interdisciplinary research teams.
Launched
in 2005 by RWJF, the INQRI program funded 40 different interdisciplinary
research teams.
The work of this
organization, that was not even a decade in the making, has changed the face of
nursing research and patient outcomes forever.
During those spring days in Washington, I was exposed to
teams of nurses, physicians, statisticians, and other health researchers who bring
their expertise together to create improved patient outcomes. The summaries of research, impact,
evaluations, revisions, and new projects stemming from the brief 7 years of
INQRI funding was more than impressive, it was the visionary foundation for
interdisciplinary nursing research. Meeting
the true ‘rock stars’ of nursing science and healthcare in action was
exhilarating.
From the meeting, I took away four meaningful ideals which
now impact the way I practice, teach, and view nursing research.
- Interdisciplinary
nurse-led research must be done. Within the interdisciplinary nature of
healthcare, professions must work together to find solutions.
- Rapid
dissemination of sound, peer-reviewed, research is key. INQRI has employed publications, conferences,
the internet, social media, webinars, and the like to more quickly push out
results. To my knowledge, they are the
first nursing research entity of its kind to so rapidly and diversely make research
findings available.
- The
expertise of nursing is critically needed to improve patient outcomes. Nursing research has often been overlooked in
competitive funding proposals because it is not aimed toward some of the
groundbreaking science and pharmaceutical advances. However, the experience of human illness,
barriers to care, complications in acute care settings and beyond, inflated
costs of readmissions, falls, home care, are just a few of the areas in which
nurses are experts. Our work can be
measured, is life and cost saving, and has impact.
- Nurses of
all education levels should not only read nursing research, but readily take
part in it. From bedside and
classroom, to administration.
The foundational work of the INQRI program has changed
healthcare and nursing forever.
Today, when I teach other nurses about their critical part
in nursing research, I reflect on my brief encounter with some of the greatest
heroes of nursing research. In April 2012, I got to meet one of the most incredibly
impressive people I have ever read. Her
work is far reaching and her leadership has changed how I, and so many others,
practice, and her name is Dr. Mary Naylor, the director of the INQRI program. When I first was introduced I fumbled for
words, but finally I knew what to say: “Thank you.”
To the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the leaders of the
INQRI program, thank you for your belief in nurses and their commitment to
patients, to changing how we as nurses research and practice, and for your
commitment of time and resources. At
this one-year anniversary, the dream continues, for patients, for nurses, for
healthcare.
