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The knowledge, attitude and behavior of ICU nurses regarding ICU-acquired weakness: a cross-sectional survey

Intensive care unit-acquired weakness (ICU-AW) is very common in ICU patients. It is important to understand the status quo of knowledge, attitude and behavior of ICU nurses about ICU-AW. This survey aimed to ...

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Transitional care for older persons with need of geriatric rehabilitation nursing interventions

The literature review notes that people in need of care from Rehabilitation Programs do not always see their continuity ensured.

Correction: Nurses’ and patients’ perceptions of physical health screening for patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders: a qualitative study

The original article was published in BMC Nursing 2024 23 :321

Exploring the influence of the spiritual climate on psychological empowerment among nurses in China: a cross-sectional study

Psychological empowerment notably impacts nurses’ work engagement and high-quality care. A spiritual climate is a work environment that respects individuals and encourages them to express personal views. Previ...

The influence of psychosocial work environment, personal perceived health and job crafting on nurses’ well-being: a cross-sectional survey study

The World Health Organization urged governments to prioritize the health and work well-being of nursing staff by promoting a positive working environment. A safe and healthy physical and psychosocial work envi...

Employing a serious game intervention to promote adolescent school children’s perceptions of nursing and midwifery professions

To test a serious game intervention about nursing and midwifery perceptions among adolescent school children.

Exploring the relationship between cyberloafing and innovativeness among nurses in research hospitals: a cross-sectional study in Turkey

Although cyberloafing, which refers to employees' use of the internet for private purposes outside of work, is seen as a negative behavior; Positive effects on areas such as individual development, learning op...

Experience and training needs of nurses in military hospital on emergency rescue at high altitude: a qualitative meta-synthesis

Nurses play an important role in the treatment of war wounds on the plateau, and they face multiple challenges and a variety of needs in their caregiving process. This study aimed to systematically integrate a...

The factors of job crafting in emergency nurses: regression models versus qualitative comparative analysis

Job crafting is defined as a series of proactive behaviors exhibited by employees in order to balance work resources and needs, which has a significant positive impact on the nurses. It is necessary to find th...

Workplace access, burnout, and prescription drug misuse among Korean hospital nurses: a cross-sectional study

Prescription drug misuse has been identified as a global issue of concern. Nurses’ prescription drug misuse is linked to personal health problems and impaired nursing care. This study explored the level of Sou...

Exploring presence practices: a study of unit managers in a selected Provincial Hospital in Free State Province

Nursing presence depends on an individual’s belief system, truths, sensory experience, professional skills, and active listening. Thus, one may assume that presence occurs when nurses care for patients in a ki...

A scale for measuring nursing digital application skills: a development and psychometric testing study

The adoption of digitization has emerged as a new trend in the advancement of healthcare systems. To ensure high-quality care, nurses should possess sufficient skills to assist in the digital transformation of...

Development and initiation of a preceptor program to improve midwifery and nursing clinical education in sub-saharan Africa: protocol for a mixed methods study

Expanding the quality and quantity of midwifery and nursing clinical preceptors is a critical need in many sub-Saharan educational settings to strengthen students’ clinical learning outcomes, and ultimately to...

The moderating role of work environment in the relationship between proactive personality and personal growth initiative among nurses: a cross-sectional study

Personal growth initiative (PGI) is regarded as a meaningful concept with potential value at both the individual and organizational levels, but little is known about the factors that contribute to nurses’ PGI....

Pathways linking workplace violence and suicidal ideation/non-suicidal self-injury among nurse staff: the mediating role of loneliness and depressive symptoms

Nurses face disproportionately high rates of suicidal ideation and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). The role of workplace violence, loneliness, and depressive symptoms in exacerbating these issues is poorly un...

Barriers and outcomes of therapeutic communication between nurses and patients in Africa: a scoping review

Therapeutic communication (TC) promotes effective patient care, emotional wellbeing, and improves patient outcomes. The purpose of this review was to synthesise evidence on barriers and outcomes of TC between ...

Abusive supervision and nursing students’ intention to leave the nursing profession: a moderated mediation model of emotional exhaustion and the nurse-patient relationship

Exploration of the relationship between nursing students’ abusive supervision and their future intention to leave the nursing profession before completing the final clinical practicum is critical to the issue ...

Validation of the Chinese version of the Oslo-3 Social Support Scale among nursing students: a study based on Classical Test Theory and Item Response Theory models

Nursing students are encountering a range of health issues. Assessing social support is a key component in most questionnaire surveys related to health status, aiming to investigate the relationships and mecha...

Development of a training program prototype to enhance implementation leadership competencies and behaviours of Chinese unit nurse managers: a qualitative descriptive study

Unit nurse managers hold essential positions that can facilitate implementation of evidence-based practice. Studies showed that nurse managers in China lacked competencies and behaviours necessary to lead evid...

The impact of negative cognitive bias on NSSI: mediating non-adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies

Individuals may be more likely to engage in NSSI due to negative cognitive bias, while the use of negative emotional regulation mechanisms may further contribute to NSSI. Currently, there is a dearth of studie...

Impact of a comprehensive rehabilitation palliative care program on the quality of life of patients with terminal cancer and their informal caregivers: a quasi-experimental study

Palliative care schemes, which include pain management, symptom control, psychosocial support and rehabilitation, aim to boost patients’ quality of life, ease the burden and anxiety of informal caregivers, and...

Factors associated with work engagement among specialist nurses in china: a cross-sectional study

The positive impacts of work engagement among specialist nurses on retention, organizational commitment, and quality of care are well-documented. However, there is a lack of research on the specific difference...

Correction: Analysis of cybersickness in virtual nursing simulation: a German longitudinal study

The original article was published in BMC Nursing 2024 23 :187

Process evaluation of the implementation of the ABC method, an intervention for nurses dealing with challenging behaviour of patients with brain injury

Introducing new working methods is common in healthcare organisations. However, implementation of a new method is often suboptimal. This reduces the effectiveness of the innovation and has several other negati...

Nurses, non-nurse healthcare providers, and clients’ perspectives, encounters, and choices of nursing gender in Tanzania: a qualitative descriptive study

A growing share of male nurses in the nursing profession in Tanzania has changed the trend of diversity of nursing gender. This might have created a divergent perspective within the communities. Therefore, the...

The experiences of patients with COVID-19 and their relatives from receiving professional home care nursing: a qualitative content analysis

To overcome of patients with COVID-19 over the capacity of hospitals and mild to moderate severity of the disease in most cases, the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...

The influence of socio-cognitive mindfulness, moral sensitivity and dementia communication behaviors on dementia nursing performance of nurses in long-term care hospitals: a cross-sectional study

By incorporating socio-cognitive mindfulness which has been under-examined in the nursing field, this study investigated the relationships between socio-cognitive mindfulness, moral sensitivity, dementia commu...

The mediating effect of pregnancy adaptation between family support and maternal-fetal bonding: a cross-sectional study

Establishing a nurturing bond with the unborn child is essential for expectant mothers throughout pregnancy. While the influence of family support and pregnancy adaptation on maternal-fetal bonding is evident,...

Emotional intelligence and self-esteem among Saudi Arabian and Indian nursing students: findings from two countries

Understanding the emotional intelligence (EI) and self-esteem of Indian and Saudi nursing students is important because their future nurse–patient relationships may be influenced by factors related to their un...

Pass or fail: Teachers’ experience of assessment of postgraduate critical care nursing students’ competence in placement. A qualitative study

Learning in placement is essential to postgraduate critical care nursing students’ education. Assessment of students’ competence in placement is important to ensure highly qualified postgraduate critical care ...

Factors influencing peripheral intravenous catheter practice of nurses in small and medium sized hospitals: a cross-sectional study

The importance of the peripheral intravenous catheter (PIVC) practices on patient safety is increasing. Small and medium-sized hospitals play a central role in the provision of healthcare services in South Kor...

Burden, social support, and coping strategies in family caregivers of individuals receiving home mechanical ventilation: a cross-sectional study

Home mechanical ventilation (HMV) is a treatment method for patients with chronic respiratory failure. HMV is a challenge for both patients and their caregivers. Some studies have shown a higher risk of depres...

Preparedness for a first clinical placement in nursing: a descriptive qualitative study

A first clinical placement for nursing students is a challenging period involving translation of theoretical knowledge and development of an identity within the healthcare setting; it is often a time of emotio...

Nurses’ self-regulation after engaging in end-of-life conversations with advanced cancer patients: a qualitative study

Self-regulation is crucial for nurses who engage in in-depth end-of-life conversations with advanced cancer patients, especially in cultural contexts featuring death taboos. An improved understanding of the se...

Sustainability consciousness among nursing students in Egypt: a cross-sectional study

Recognizing nurses as pivotal change agents and urgent preparation for the next generation is crucial for addressing sustainability issues and cultivating a sustainable healthcare system. Reports highlight gap...

Effect of authentic leadership and mindfulness educational program on nursing managers' competencies: a quasi-experimental study

Authentic leadership is an emerging perspective in leadership that focuses on leaders' values and beliefs. while the mindfulness perspective permits nurse managers to be fully present, aware of themselves and ...

Stress level and associated factors among nurses working in the critical care unit and emergency rooms at comprehensive specialized hospitals in Southern Ethiopia, 2023: explanatory sequential mixed-method study

Stress is a pervasive occurrence within certain professions, including nurses working in emergency and intensive care unit environments. Nurses in these settings often confront various stress-inducing factors,...

Innovative cultural care training: the impact of flipped classroom methods on critical cultural competencies in psychiatric nursing: a quasi-experimental study

Healthcare systems are encountering a growing number of diverse and multicultural clients due to globalization and migration. To effectively address the challenges associated with cross-cultural interactions, ...

The mediating effects of self-efficacy and study engagement on the relationship between specialty identity and career maturity of Chinese nursing students: a cross-sectional study

Career maturity is a crucial indicator of career preparedness and unpreparedness can cause the turnover of new nurses. Considerable empirical work demonstrates the potential associations between specialty iden...

Effectiveness of a home-based pulmonary rehabilitation maintenance programme: the Rehab2Life study protocol

Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is the bedrock of non-pharmacological treatment for people with COPD. Nonetheless, it is well described in the literature that unless the patient changes his behaviour, the benefi...

Exposure to secondary traumatic stress and its related factors among emergency nurses in Saudi Arabia: a mixed method study

Emergency department (ED) nurses are exposed to the risk of secondary traumatic stress (STS), which poses a threat not only to nurses’ health and psychological well-being but also adversely affects the executi...

“Unless someone sees and hears you, how do you know you exist?” Meanings of confidential conversations – a hermeneutic study of the experiences of patients with palliative care needs

Patients with palliative care needs live with the reality of limited time due to illness or age, eliciting emotional and existential responses. A failure to address their existential needs can lead to signific...

Improvement in nurse staffing ratios according to policy changes: a prospective cohort study

Since 1999, reimbursements for nursing services for inpatients have been paid differentially according to the nurse staffing ratios in Korea. However, differentiated nursing fees are insufficient for nurse sta...

Translation, adaptation, and validation of a Chinese version of the Hypertension Self-Care Activity Level effects (H-SCALE) for patients with hypertension

Lifestyle modification is an essential component of prevention and management of hypertension. Existing instruments in Taiwan focus on assessing lifestyle modifications by evaluating medication adherence or co...

Nursing practice of routine gastric aspiration in preterm infants and its link to necrotizing enterocolitis: is the practice still clinically relevant?

The practice of routine gastric residual aspiration in preterm infants remains controversial, with conflicting evidence regarding its impact on necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). As front-line caregivers, nurses...

Acceptance of virtual patients as a continuous professional development approach among practicing nurses in primary health care settings in a low-income country: a quasi-experimental posttest setup design

Virtual patients are an educational technological approach used in healthcare education. Its distinctive features have rendered virtual patient technology appealing for the training of medical and healthcare s...

Content of a wound care mobile application for newly graduated nurses: an e-Delphi study

Wound care represents a considerable challenge, especially for newly graduated nurses. The development of a mobile application is envisioned to improve knowledge transfer and facilitate evidence-based practice...

Factors associated with clinical nurse’s mental health: a qualitative study applying the social ecological model

The prevalence of burnout, depression, and anxiety among Chinese nurses was 34%, 55.5%, and 41.8% respectively. Mental health problems have significant impacts on their personal well-being, work performance, p...

Effectiveness of a needs-tailored nurse-led recovery program for community-dwelling people with schizophrenia: a cluster-randomized controlled trial

Meeting people’s needs is positively correlated with their recovery. However, recovery services rarely include nurse-led programs tailored to the needs of these people. This study aimed to evaluate the effecti...

Comparison of barriers to effective nurse-patient communication in COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 wards

Communication is a basic need of humans. Identifying factors that prevent effective nurse-patient communication allows for the better implementation of necessary measures to modify barriers. This study aims to...

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Evidence-Based Practice and Nursing Research

Evidence-based practice is now widely recognized as the key to improving healthcare quality and patient outcomes. Although the purposes of nursing research (conducting research to generate new knowledge) and evidence-based nursing practice (utilizing best evidence as basis of nursing practice) seem quite different, an increasing number of research studies have been conducted with the goal of translating evidence effectively into practice. Clearly, evidence from research (effective innovation) must be accompanied by effective implementation, and an enabling context to achieve significant outcomes.

As mentioned by Professor Rita Pickler, “nursing science needs to encompass all manner of research, from discovery to translation, from bench to bedside, from mechanistic to holistic” ( Pickler, 2018 ). I feel that The Journal of Nursing Research must provide an open forum for all kind of research in order to help bridge the gap between research-generated evidence and clinical nursing practice and education.

In this issue, an article by professor Ying-Ju Chang and colleagues at National Cheng Kung University presents an evidence-based practice curriculum for undergraduate nursing students developed using an action research-based model. This “evidence-based practice curriculum” spans all four academic years, integrates coursework and practicums, and sets different learning objectives for students at different grade levels. Also in this issue, Yang et al. apply a revised standard care procedure to increase the ability of critical care nurses to verify the placement of nasogastric tubes. After appraising the evidence, the authors conclude that the aspirate pH test is the most reliable and economical method for verifying nasogastric tube placement at the bedside. They subsequently develop a revised standard care procedure and a checklist for auditing the procedure, conduct education for nurses, and examine the effectiveness of the revised procedure.

I hope that these two studies help us all better appreciate that, in addition to innovation and new breakthrough discoveries, curriculum development and evidence-based quality improvement projects, though may not seem so novel, are also important areas of nursing research. Translating evidence into practice is sound science and merits more research.

Cite this article as: Chien, L. Y. (2019). Evidence-based practice and nursing research. The Journal of Nursing Research, 27 (4), e29. https://doi.org/10.1097/jnr.0000000000000346

• Pickler R. H. (2018). Honoring the past, pursuing the future . Nursing Research , 67 ( 1 ), 1–2. 10.1097/NNR.0000000000000255 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]

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The nih almanac, national institute of nursing research (ninr).

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The National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) leads nursing research to solve pressing health challenges and inform practice and policy - optimizing health and advancing health equity into the future.

The 2022-2026 NINR Strategic Plan: An Overview

NINR’s strategic plan includes a research framework that takes advantage of what makes the Institute unique by focusing on a holistic, contextualized approach to optimizing health for all people, rather than on specific diseases, life stages, or research topics. The framework encourages research that informs practice and policy, and improves health and quality of life for all people, their families and communities, and the society in which they live.

The framework builds on the strengths of nursing research, spans the intersection of health care and public health, and encompasses the clinical and community settings where nurses engage in prevention, treatment, and care—including hospitals and clinics, schools and workplaces, homes and long-term care facilities, justice settings, and throughout the community.

NINR’s research framework includes five complementary and synergistic research lenses that best leverage the strengths of nursing research and promote multilevel approaches, cross-disciplinary and -sectoral collaboration, and community engagement in research. The research lenses are: 

• Health Equity
• Social Determinants of Health
• Population and Community Health
• Prevention and Health Promotion
• Systems and Models of Care

The Plan is intended to be a living document, one which can be adapted as new opportunities and challenges arise.

Important Events in NINR History

November 20, 1985  — Public Law 99-158, the Health Research Extension Act of 1985, becomes law. Among other provisions, the law authorizes the National Center for Nursing Research (NCNR) to support research and training related to patient care at NIH.

April 18, 1986  — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary announces the establishment of NCNR at NIH.

April 1986–June 1987  — Dr. Doris Merritt, Special Assistant to the NIH Director, is appointed Acting Director of NCNR. NCNR’s initial budget is $16 million.

June 1987–June 1994  — Dr. Ada Sue Hinshaw serves as the first Director of NCNR.

June 10, 1993  — P.L. 103-43, the NIH Revitalization Act of 1993, becomes law. Among other provisions, it elevates NCNR to an NIH Institute. As such, NCNR is re-designated the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR).

July 1994–April 1995  — Dr. Suzanne Hurd serves as Acting Director of NINR.

April 3, 1995  — Dr. Patricia A. Grady is appointed Director of NINR.

Summer 2000  — NINR holds the first Summer Genetics Institute.

April 2002  — NINR launches a free online training, "Developing Nurse Scientists" for students interested in the nursing research field.

2004  — NINR launches a new pilot training project, the Graduate Partnerships Program in Biobehavioral Research.

December 2004  — NINR co-sponsors the NIH State-of-the-Science conference, Improving End-of-Life Care, bringing together almost 1,000 health care practitioners from around the world.

2005–2006  — NINR celebrates its 20th anniversary at NIH.

2009  — Using the unprecedented additional funding made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), NINR supports an additional $36 million in research in fiscal year 2009–2010. Projects supported under ARRA include a new research cooperative for palliative care science and multiple training opportunities to build the scientific workforce. Approximately 73 additional research grants are supported, along with multiple research and training supplements.

2010  — NINR holds its first Methodologies Boot Camp, which focuses on pain research.

2010  — U.S. Senate resolution, S. Res. 642, congratulates NINR on a quarter century of achievement in science and public service. The resolution is introduced by Senator Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and co-sponsored by Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine).

2010–2011  — NINR celebrates its 25th anniversary at NIH with a series of scientific events.

2011  — NINR launches a new NINR Director's Lecture series, designed to bring the nation’s top nurse scientists to the NIH campus to share their work and interests with a transdisciplinary audience. Dr. Bernadette Melnyk presents the inaugural lecture on “COPE: Improving Outcomes for Premature Infants and Parents.”

August 11–12, 2011  — NINR convenes a national summit on “The Science of Compassion: Future Directions in End-of-Life and Palliative Care,” attended by nearly 1,000 scientists, health care professionals, and public advocates.

October 13, 2011  —  Bringing Science to Life: NINR Strategic Plan is released at NINR's 25th Anniversary Concluding Symposium.

January 2014  — NINR launches the Palliative Care: Conversations Matter® campaign, which aims to increase the use of palliative care for children living with a serious illness. The campaign is initiated to raise awareness of and improve communication about pediatric palliative care.

2015–2016  — NINR marks its 30th anniversary at NIH with a series of scientific events including the “Advancing Science, Improving Lives” scientific symposium.

September 2016 — NINR releases its new Strategic Plan, "Advancing Science, Improving Lives: A Vision for Nursing Science." The blueprint for the Plan grew from the Institute’s 2011 Strategic Plan, past scientific accomplishments, and current research priorities.

August 2017 — NINR and its partners host “The Science of Caregiving: Bringing Voices Together” Summit. The Summit provides perspectives across the spectrum of caregiving, including the importance of caregiving across the lifespan as well as current and future directions for research to improve the health of patients and caregivers. 

August 31, 2018 — After 23 years of service, Dr. Patricia A. Grady retires as director of NINR.

September 2018–September 2019 — Dr. Ann Cashion serves as Acting Director of NINR. On September 30, 2019, Dr. Cashion retires from federal service.

October 2019 to December 2019 — Dr. Lawrence Tabak serves as Acting Director of NINR.    

January 2020 to September 2020 — Dr. Tara Schwetz serves as Acting Director of NINR.    

September 14, 2020 — Dr. Shannon Zenk becomes Director of NINR.

May 2022 – The Institute releases the NINR 2022-2026 Strategic Plan. This plan outlines the Institute's vision for supporting science that advances our mission: to lead nursing research to solve pressing health challenges and inform practice and policy-optimizing health and advancing health equity into the future.

November 2022 – NINR hosts a workshop “Firearm Injury Prevention: State of the Science and the Potential of Nurse-Led Research” to explore how nurse scientists and nursing research can contribute to firearm injury prevention. The workshop includes an examination of current research in various disciplines, with the goal of developing a research trajectory that advances nursing knowledge, practice, and policy related to firearm injury prevention.

2022-2023 – Dr. Zenk participates in the Implementing a Maternal health and PRegnancy Outcomes Vision for Everyone (IMPROVE) Initiative, the NIH-wide Social Determinants of Health Research Coordinating Committee (SDOH RCC), and the NIH Climate Change and Health Initiative.

NINR Legislative Chronology

November 10, 1985 — Public Law 99-158, the Health and Research Extension Act of 1985, becomes law. Among other provisions, the law authorizes the National Center for Nursing Research (NCNR) to support research and research training related to patient care at NIH.

1986 — A series of continuing resolutions (P.L. 99-500, P.L. 99-599) establishes NCNR as a separate NIH appropriation.

June 10, 1993 — P.L. 103-43, the NIH Revitalization Act of 1993, becomes law. Among other provisions, it elevates NCNR to a NIH Institute. As such, NCNR is re-designated the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR).

2010 — U.S. Senate resolution, S. Res. 642, congratulates NINR on a quarter century of achievement in science and public service. The resolution is introduced by Senator Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and cosponsored by Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine).

Biographical Sketch of NINR Director Shannon N. Zenk, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN

Shannon N. Zenk, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN is the Director of the National Institute of Nursing Research.

Dr. Zenk was previously a Nursing Collegiate Professor in the Department of Population Health Nursing Science at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) College of Nursing, and a fellow at the UIC Institute for Health Research and Policy.

Dr. Zenk was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in 2013, received the President’s Award from the Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research in 2018, and was inducted into the International Nurse Researchers Hall of Fame in 2019. She has spent time as a visiting scholar in Rwanda and Australia. She earned her bachelor’s in nursing, magna cum laude, from Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington; her master’s degrees in public health nursing and community health sciences from UIC; and her doctorate in health behavior and health education from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her predoctoral training was in psychosocial factors in mental health and illness, funded by the the National Institute of Mental Health. Her dissertation examined racial and socioeconomic inequities in food access in metropolitan Detroit. She completed postdoctoral training in UIC’s Institute for Health Research and Policy’s Cancer Education and Career Development Program, funded by the National Cancer Institute, in 2006.

Dr. Zenk’s own research focuses on social inequities and health with a goal of identifying effective, multilevel approaches to improve health and eliminate racial/ethnic and socioeconomic health disparities. Her research portfolio has included NIH-supported work into urban food environments, community health solutions and veterans’ health. Through pioneering research on the built environment and food deserts, Dr. Zenk and her colleagues increased national attention to the problem of inadequate access to healthful foods in low-income and Black neighborhoods. They have since examined the role of community environments in health and health disparities. 

Recognizing that restricting empirical attention to the communities where people live and not the other communities where they spend time may misdirect interventions, Dr. Zenk led early research adopting GPS tracking to study broader “activity space” environments in relation to health behaviors. She and her colleagues have also evaluated whether the effectiveness of behavioral interventions differs depending on environmental context and, most recently, how environmental and personal factors interact to affect health. This work has leveraged a variety of technologies and emerging data resources such as electronic health records. Energy balance-related behaviors and conditions have been a major focus.

NINR Directors

Major programs.

Division of Extramural Science Programs  

The Division of Extramural Science Programs (DESP) serves NINR’s extramural research community and NINR by overseeing policy and management for grants and contracts to support NINR research and training at institutions across the United States. NINR offers a range of research funding and training opportunities. 

Division of Intramural Research

NINR's intramural research program conducts science that complements NINR's overall research mission, while leveraging resources unique to the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland.

The intramural research program is currently focused on increasing its efforts in research that integrate a multilevel understanding of the impact of health determinants, from the community level to the laboratory bench, with areas such as community-based, multilevel, and translational research. Like the rest of NINR's research portfolio, this approach to science takes advantage of nursing science's unique ability to address people's lives and living conditions to improve health and health equity.

National Advisory Council for Nursing Research

The National Advisory Council for Nursing Research provides a second level of review of grant applications, and recommends to the Institute Director which applications should be approved and considered for funding. These recommendations are based not only on considerations of scientific merit, but also on the relevance of the proposed project to NINR’s programs and priorities. Funding decisions are ultimately made by the Institute. In addition, the Council reviews the Institute’s extramural programs and also makes recommendations about its intramural research activities.

Partnerships and Initiatives

NINR plays an active role in several initiatives, including the:

• Community Partnerships to Advance Science for Society (ComPASS) - ComPASS aims to catalyze, deploy, and evaluate community-led health equity structural interventions that leverage partnerships across multiple sectors to reduce health disparities.
• Transformative Health Disparities Research Program - NINR is co-leading NIH’s Common Fund Transformative Research to Address Health Disparities and Advance Health Equity initiative, which is supporting innovative, translational research projects to prevent, reduce, or eliminate health disparities and advance health equity.
• NIH-Wide Social Determinants of Health Research Coordinating Committee (SDOH RCC) - NINR is co-chairing an NIH-wide SDOH RCC. The goal of the committee is to accelerate SDOH research across NIH and across diseases and conditions, populations, life course, and SDOH domains.
• Implementing a Maternal Health and Pregnancy Outcomes Vision for Everyone Initiative (IMPROVE) - NINR is a co-chair of the NIH IMPROVE initiative to address high rates of maternal morbidity and mortality in the United States. It includes a special emphasis on health disparities and populations that are disproportionately affected.
• Climate Change and Health Initiative (CCHI)- NINR is on the executive committee for the NIH-wide CCHI. CCHI is an urgent, cross-cutting NIH effort to reduce health threats from climate change across the lifespan and to build health resilience in individuals, communities, and nations around the world, especially among those at highest risk.
• Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative (HEAL) - NINR is supporting the HEAL initiative, an effort to enhance evidence and evidence-based solutions to address the national opioid public health crisis. Through this initiative NINR is funding research to understand, manage, and treat pain. As part of the NIH HEAL Initiative to speed scientific solutions for the national opioid public health crisis, NINR participates in the Pragmatic and Implementation Studies for the Management of Pain to Reduce Opioid Prescribing (PRISM) program.
• COVID Social Behavioral, And Economic Initiative (SBE) - NINR has a leadership role in NIH’s SBE Initiative on the Health Impacts of COVID-19, which includes 21 NIH Institutes and Centers that have pooled funds to support this initiative. As part of the COVID SBE initiative, NINR has supported 11 grants focused on data science and intervention research.

For more information about NINR, please visit the NINR website at: www.ninr.nih.gov .

This page last reviewed on June 30, 2023

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The National Institute of Nursing Research 2022-2026 Strategic Plan

The National Institute of Nursing Research 2022-2026 Strategic Plan outlines the Institute's vision for supporting science that advances our mission: to lead nursing research to solve pressing health challenges and inform practice and policy-optimizing health and advancing health equity into the future.

Nurses are crucial to solving the Nation's most pressing and persistent health challenges. As both the largest health profession and the largest of all professions in the Nation, nurses are the backbone of our health systems in the United States and have ranked as the most trusted profession for 20 years in a row. Nurses interact with individuals and families more closely than other health professionals in the many clinical, community, and policy settings in which they work; thus, they have a deep understanding of the personal and societal factors that lead to health among some, and illness among others. NINR believes that nursing research is the key to unlocking the power and potential of nursing by leveraging these strengths and unique knowledge and perspectives inherent to the discipline to the benefit of all people.

Nursing's earliest pioneers recognized that health must be considered within the context of people's lives and living conditions. Florence Nightingale was one of the first to recognize and address the connection between health and environmental elements, such as ventilation and warming, clean air and water, noise pollution, and provision of light. Lillian Wald saw nurses as working at the intersection of medicine and society to care for individuals, families, and communities in the context of social, economic, and industrial conditions. Nurses continue to build on this rich history through nurse-led efforts to address intensifying inequities and social determinants of health.

This strategic plan describes how NINR will support scientific programs, training, and policies that both move the nursing research field forward and maximize the impact of our science through good stewardship of public funds. The plan includes our Director's overview, research framework, stewardship plan, development process, and frequently asked questions. The changes from prior plans are intentional and were made in recognition that our science needs to continue to innovate. As a living document, this plan will allow NINR to respond nimbly to evolving and emerging health issues facing our Nation.

This fact sheet provides an overview of the National Institute of Nursing Research's (NINR) 2022-2026 strategic plan, which includes NINR's mission, research lenses for investigating health-related questions, guiding principles for prioritizing research, and a research framework for achieving NINR's mission.