And the winner is: Celebrating 50 years of the RCN Nursing Research Society
ANNIE TOPPING, Vice-Chair of the RCN Research Society, reminds of how much we all have to cheer about!
The RCN Research Society began as a discussion group in 1959. Its first elected officer was Gertrude Ramsden and its founding members included Doreen Norton and Peggy Nuttall.
Doreen Norton at that time was undertaking a two year study at the Whittington Hospital, London, that examined geriatric nursing problems and she subsequently went onto demonstrate how it was moving patients and relieving pressure that prevented the development of pressure sores - not an array of potions and routinised back rubbing.
The RCN Research Society has evolved from those auspicious beginnings into today's organisation that lobbies on behalf of its members to influence policymakers and to inform practice and education through research. We also organise an annual international research conference in collaboration with a local organising committee and the RCN Events Unit.
Celebrating a proud history
This year the conference, which was held in Cardiff, provided an opportunity to celebrate 50 years of nursing research. This involved revisiting our research heritage to listen to pioneer research journeys, review some of the lessons learned along the way and mark out the route map for the future.
That celebration took two forms: a witness panel of authors of the seminal RCN Study of Nursing Care Series* and a fringe event which presented the findings from Phase One of a study designed to identify the most influential nursing research study.
An unrepresentative volunteer sample of RCN Research Society members had been invited to select and present a review of a research study from specified decades (two per decade) which they considered to be the most influential nursing research (see Table 1). The audience was then invited to vote for the most influential from the selected "top 10".
The Phase One audience (largely researchers) voted Felicity Stockwell (first), Patricia Benner (second) and Jack Hayward (third) - round one to the RCN Study of Nursing Care Series!
Online survey
Undeterred, Phase Two continued in pursuit of the most influential piece of nursing research. An online survey invited respondents to nominate up to three pieces of research per decade with no self nominations.
The overall joint winners - that is, the researchers with the highest number of nominations - were Jack Hayward and Felicity Stockwell. Three nurse researchers - Karen Luker, Nicky Cullum and Anne-Marie Rafferty - received a consistent number of votes across the decades, recognising the emergence of researchers with a steady stream of work and outputs.
Finally, at RCN Congress (Phase Three) the results of the online survey were presented by a panel of nurse researchers and on this occasion, the audience of Congress delegates were invited to vote for the most influential nurse researcher.
The resounding result was Florence Nightingale - the first modern nurse researcher and a member of the British Statistical Society. This was a fitting prelude to the centenary of her death in 2010 and perhaps offers a message about the future direction for nursing research - the importance of getting evidence into policy and delivering research with impact!
For references, visit the nursing research top 50 page.
* Read the reports on the Study of Nursing Care Series archive