The Power of Nursing Science

Nursing is a discipline that affects people one-by-one, community-by-community, and nation-by-nation. As nurses, we take seriously our moral commitment to the world to work toward the health and well-being of individuals and populations.

I recently participated in an initiative called the Global Advancement of Practice and Research in Nursing (GAPRIN), which was co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR).  I was one of two leading U.S. academic nurses invited to travel with a delegation to Bangladesh where nurses, for the first time, were invited into the boardroom to join discussions with health care leaders from around the word. Our purpose was to empower and catalyze nurse leaders to guide others in creating an evidence based culture and a more person centered approach to health care.  We met with governmental officials, academicians, and clinicians to discuss the importance of building strong nurse training programs in research and clinical practice that evolve into lifelong career paths for nurses. The outcome was remarkable.

In developing nations like Bangladesh, the concept of nursing research is novel, even unheard of. After hearing about the significance of nursing research in producing the evidence for quality care, the Executive Director of ICDDR,B (International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh), Dr. Alejandro Cravioto, committed $25,000 for competitive proposals in nursing research – the first such funding for nursing research in Bangladesh. The NINR and the U.S. Department of State will support nurses in Bangladesh in developing research programs as well as in empowering nurses to use evidence in their practice.

Together we will start to build an aspect of nursing that is critical for Bangladesh and for every country in the world – the capacity for nursing science.