Provision 7
Nurses advance the profession through multiple approaches to knowledge development, professional standards, and the generation of policies for nursing, health, and social concerns.
7.1 Contributions through Knowledge Development, Research, and Scholarly Inquiry
All nurses are engaged in knowledge production that informs nursing practice. Nursing knowledge draws from and contributes to the sciences and humanities. Nurses engage in research and scholarly inquiry designed to expand the body of nursing knowledge through theory, philosophy, ethics, science, and practice.
Nurses develop knowledge using a diversity of methodologies derived from the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities. Multiple ways of knowing provide varied insights that contribute to nursing knowledge. The body of knowledge from non-nursing disciplines is also important to advance nursing knowledge. This includes historical, philosophical, and ethical approaches. The integration of the arts also broadens nursing’s knowledge base and contributes to nurses’ understanding of the human experience. Nursing knowledge and practice benefit from a plurality of perspectives and knowers.
Understanding how rigorous and ethical research enables the integration of findings into practice protocols and guidelines, advances health outcomes, and shapes policy development to support nursing practice. Some nurses are directly involved in empirical research as principal investigators or lead nurse scientists, research coordinators, or other members of the research team. The incorporation of research findings in clinical practice benefits patients who are the recipients of a nurse’s expert knowledge, skill, and care. Research may or may not directly benefit the individual enrolled in a research study but advances knowledge for the future treatment of patients and is a gift of the consenting participants.
Nurses increasingly come in contact with research procedures in the delivery of nursing care. All nurses ought to understand the elements of what makes research ethical: social value, scientific merit, informed consent, fair subject selection, independent review, favorable risk-benefit ratio, and respect for enrolled participants. Evidence-based practice is generated from research and other quality improvement processes and improves the care provided in all settings.