The Importance Of Nurse Involvement In Policy Development Highlighted In Research Book

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 06 Nov 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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Two directors from the New Jersey Collaborative Center for Nursing based at the College of Nursing at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, have edited a book to help nurse leaders and researchers to successfully translate evidence-based research into health policy.

"Nursing Policy Research," edited by Geri L. Dickson, founder and executive director, and Linda Flynn, research director, centers on the powerful potential of nursing research to influence health policy decisions and initiatives.

"At Rutgers, I taught a doctoral level course about how nurse scholars can use research to influence the development of evidence-based health policy," said Flynn, a Center Valley, PA resident. "What I found over the years that there is really no text book that address this very important issue."

Dickson, a Bloomfield, N.J. resident, said policy research holds the key to the development and implementation of solutions to issues of safety and quality of care for patients.

"The journey, outlined in this book, from research to policy, presents beginning steps for nurses to promote those evidence-based solutions, which can be introduced and adopted by the larger healthcare system to decrease the safety risks to patients," Dickson said.

Many of the chapters in the 372-page soft cover book, published by Springer Publishing Co., began as presentations at the national conference for leaders in the state workforce centers hosted by the New Jersey Collaborating Center for Nursing in 2006. Some of those presentations, together with additional authors, provide a road map to identify how scientific, patient-oriented research is developed, administered and presented.

It also shows how this research can drive many levels of policy change so that the healthcare system can achieve better and more cost-effective outcomes.

Flynn said, "Our book's content emphasizes and re-emphasizes the importance of nurse involvement in policy development. We describe how using our evidence to influence policy is not only an opportunity but a responsibility as nursing scholars and leaders to advocate patient safety and quality care."

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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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From its headquarters in Newark, Rutgers College of Nursing offers a broad range of academic programs on all three Rutgers campuses. The college offers a master's program with unique practitioner specialties, a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree, and was the first to offer a Ph.D. nursing degree in New Jersey.

Source: Miguel Tersy
Rutgers University