Two videos—one an introduction of the honorees and the other a question-and-answer session—highlight accomplishments of 15 nurses inducted 14 July 2011 into the International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame.
Audience members posed questions to the nurse-researcher honorees following the induction ceremony, conducted during the 22nd International Nursing Research Congress in Cancún, Mexico. The following are excerpts from their responses.
How did your career evolve from clinical practice to research?
For May L. Wykle, the decision to become a nurse researcher was not entirely her own. “I was in clinical practice and psychiatric nursing before becoming an educator,” she told the audience. “I was teaching at Case Western Reserve, and I thought that’s what my world consisted of—until one day, my dean, Joyce Fitzpatrick asked me what research I did. I said, ‘I teach; I don’t do research.’” Wykle’s dean directed her to begin doing research. She has made extensive contributions in areas such as geriatric mental health, family caregiving and caring for patients with dementia.
How have you helped practicing nurses connect your research to their practice?
Debra K. Moser’s research focuses on improving outcomes in patients with heart failure and acute myocardial infarction and on preventing cardiovascular disease. She employs a community-based model to incorporate her research about risk reduction factors into everyday life. Moser’s approach is to teach not only health care practitioners but everybody who interacts with anyone in need of cardiovascular risk reduction how to deliver an intervention. She has received numerous awards in recognition of her work, including the 2006 Katharine A. Lembright Award from the American Heart Association Council on Cardiovascular Nursing.
Who inspired you in your career evolution as a nurse researcher?
When Jacquelyn Campbell was working for her master’s degree, she decided to examine causes of death in young African-American women. She learned that homicide was the number one cause. Because she knew little about violence, Campbell wanted to investigate another cause. Her mentor, Peggy Chinn, said: “No, you don’t get to do that. If you’re concerned about this, you need to find out about homicide.” Chinn encouraged Campbell to do “out-of-the-box research.” That advice led to Campbell’s accomplishments as a national leader in research and advocacy in domestic and intimate-partner violence.
How can you jump-start a research career?
Merle H. Mishel advised new researchers to be passionate about their topics. When working toward her PhD in social psychology, Mishel wanted to focus her dissertation on uncertainty. Her adviser, however, showed little enthusiasm for the topic—that is, until he was sent to a hospital observation unit after experiencing cardiac symptoms. “I went into the hospital,” Mishel told the audience, “and I said, ‘What do you think about uncertainty now?’” Her adviser approved her research. Her uncertainty-in-illness scales have been translated into more than 15 languages and are used around the world.
What amusing situations have you encountered as a nurse researcher?
Bernadette Melnyk described an incident when she was at the University of Rochester. At 2 a.m., she and her team were revising an R01 grant. “We were trying to think, but we got into a brain freeze,” she recalled. “I don’t know why I had furniture polish in a drawer in my desk, but I started dusting furniture, because I can think better when multitasking. We laughed for 20 minutes until we cried, because we were so exhausted.” Her advice? “If you really believe what you’re doing will make a difference for your patients and family members, despite how many rejections that you get, you just have to keep going.”
2012 hall of fame nominations
The deadline is 7 December 2011 for submitting nominations for the 2012 International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame. The hall of fame recognizes members of the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) who are nurse researchers; who have achieved long-term, broad national and/or international recognition for their work; and whose research has impacted the profession and the people it serves.
The induction ceremony will be during STTI’s 23rd International Nursing Research Congress in Australia in July 2012. RNL
