Four decades ago, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) established the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), solidifying its commitment to nursing science deeply rooted in optimizing health for all by addressing the most persistent and critical drivers of health. The unique nursing perspective as a profession, our commitment to compassionate care, and our focus on caring for patients, communities, and the public in all settings, provide a lens and foundation well-suited to Making America Healthy Again. However, that commitment to nursing science is at risk with the proposed elimination of NINR. For more than 20 years, nursing has been considered the most trusted profession by the public, and that is not by mistake. To continue to lead nursing with integrity, replicability, and a focus on the most persistent and critical healthcare issues, nursing science must continue to have tangible investments at the local, state, and federal levels.
What is Nursing Science?
Nursing science combines the biobehavioral perspectives of the whole person with clinical expertise that is focused on improving health and patient outcomes. It is a field where biology, psychology, sociology, technology, genetics, the humanities, ethics, information science, and real human experience come together.
Nurse scientists improve patient outcomes by promoting health and wellness and by designing and evaluating strategies to prevent and manage chronic disease. We develop interventions to enhance quality of life, create theoretical frameworks and novel research approaches, and collaborate with other health professionals to address complex health issues. Nurse scientists make significant contributions to the body of scientific knowledge and critical improvements to care using rigorous scientific practices, interdisciplinary theories, and research methods.
Nurse scientists are doctorally prepared to design and lead rigorous scientific studies to address significant public health issues. We develop better ways to deliver care at the bedside, in the community, and within health systems. Nurse scientists are trained in research methodology, data analysis, statistics, and experimental design, and often have years of front-line clinical experience. We are uniquely qualified to identify clinically important research questions, integrate innovative technology into healthcare settings, develop novel patient care interventions, and lead patient and community-centered participatory research designs.
Nurse scientists within the Texas Medical Center are nationally recognized leaders in investigating nonpharmacological ways to manage pain, improving cancer care symptom management, detecting and preventing elder mistreatment for those with dementia, implementing innovative strategies to deliver pre-natal care, developing better ways to educate patients and promote self-efficacy, developing novel interventions that improve chronic disease management, integrating artificial intelligence into patient care to improve health outcomes, preventing HIV/STIs among at-risk youth and young adults, and identifying the non-medical drivers of health outcomes among hospitalized children and their families.
Nurse scientists in the Texas Medical Center receive research funding not only from the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) but also from many other National Institutes of Health such as the National Cancer Institute, the National Library of Medicine, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Institute on Aging, and the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, to name a few. Our research is also funded by other federal and state agencies, as well as by professional organizations and foundations.
Why Does Nursing Science Matter?
Nursing science challenges health systems and adapts to emerging technologies while remaining grounded in human-centered values of dignity and empathy. We are guided by the foundational ethical principles of justice, autonomy, beneficence, and nonmaleficence. Always evolving, nursing science is lived by front-line nurses in every patient interaction, in wellness and illness, offering a voice for the vulnerable and a vision for a more humane, holistic healthcare system.
Stand with us and voice your support for nursing science. Championing NIH institutions that provide critical funding for nursing science helps sustain scientific progress by the most trusted profession in the United States. Your support for nursing science paves the way for nurses across all settings and specialties to lead studies and discover breakthroughs that advance health and quality of life for all.