The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Nursing proposes to establish the Research Center for Individualized Nursing Interventions with the mission of bringing together a cadre of scientists to facilitate and enhance the development of the science of individualized nursing interventions and inform clinical practice. The discipline of nursing values holistic care provided through individualized nursing interventions that incorporate patient's unique characteristics, such as biological state, affective state, cognition, ethnicity, beliefs, needs, goals, preferences, and resources. Unfortunately, we have little evidence about the efficacy of individualized nursing interventions. It is important for nurse researchers to begin developing the science of individualized care and provide evidence to justify this approach in clinical practice. To accomplish the mission of the proposed Center, the Administrative Core will facilitate research on individualized nursing interventions and the Pilot/Feasibility Studies Core will educate and mentor Center investigators to conduct research on individualized nursing interventions. Center resources requested in this application will provide the infrastructure to sustain and strengthen the existing current research program at UAMS College of Nursing and enhance scientific productivity in developing and testing individualized nursing interventions. The proposed Center will conduct exploratory research to inform future individualized nursing intervention studies, design instruments which measure the unique characteristics of individuals and outcomes, apply and test theories and conceptual models for individualizing interventions, and delineate standardized processes for developing and testing individualized nursing interventions. The proposed Center not only will discover the scientific evidence for individualized interventions, it will refine a new model that we developed to guide research, the Process Model for Developing and Testing Individualized Nursing Interventions. The proposed Research Center on Individualized Nursing Interventions will make a significant contribution to achieving the goals of the NINR. Investigators will conduct and disseminate highly relevant clinical research on individualized nursing interventions that will have a significant impact on improving health and well-being for people with a variety of prevalent health conditions across the lifespan.

P20NR009006

2004-09-30

2010-06-30