Page 53 - Encyclopedia of Nursing Research

20 n APPLiED RESEARCH

the one end, terms such as basic, fundamental, Applied research in nursing, then, refers
and theoretical research are used to refer to to research aimed at concrete and practi-
A research focused on discovering fundamen- cal issues and questions of concern to the
tal principles and processes governing phys- delivery of nursing care. The most evident
ical and life phenomena. on the other end, type of applied research is intervention
we find such terms as applied, clinical, practical, research—from exploratory investigations
and product research. These refer to the appli- to randomized controlled trials. This type
cation of the findings of basic/fundamental/ of applied research is aimed at providing
theoretical research to generate research answers to questions about the effectiveness,
aimed at answering focused and problem- efficacy, and safety of nursing interventions.
specific questions. Although it is the subject yet nonintervention (or descriptive)
of ongoing debate, it is assumed that there research may be categorized as applied
are fundamental principles and processes research as well if it meets the general crite-
that are core to the nursing discipline and its rion of being focused on concrete and practi-
central tenets of health, patient, nurse, and cal issues and questions about nursing care.
environment. in addition, it is assumed that other types of applied research in nursing
nursing draws on fundamental principles include studies on models of care, research
and processes discovered in other disciplines on organizational or other systems-level
to generate new knowledge about nursing determinants of care, analyses of the nurs-
and patient care. ing work force, and studies on the economic
Under these assumptions, applied aspects of nursing care.
research in nursing can be defined. The
etymology of applied goes back to the Latin Ivo Abraham
ad-plicare, meaning to put something (a Sabina De Geest
law, a test, etc.) into practical operation. Karen MacDonald