When Carolyn Yucha accepted the post of dean of the UNLV School of Nursing in 2004, she knew that building research would be one of her most pressing priorities.

At the same time the state legislature had just issued a mandate to double nursing school enrollments. Nursing research might have easily moved to the back burner as faculty focused on meeting the mandate if the right actions weren't taken. It was a challenging time for research in the school.

"We had faculty conducting research, certainly, but they didn't have the support and infrastructure needed to really be successful," says Yucha, who was determined to make the changes necessary both to build research and produce more graduates. "At the time, developing creative ways to address the growing statewide nursing shortage was the top priority for the school and its faculty. But we were committed to research as well."

To produce more nurses, the school streamlined its curriculum and extended its calendar to accommodate more students, enabling them to enter the workforce faster. Additionally, a Ph.D. program in nursing education was approved, and several new faculty were hired.

While the new faculty supported the school's classroom goals, they also incubated what would soon become a brisk and dedicated research endeavor.

"Nursing education was and still is a primary focus, but research is absolutely necessary to move the school to the next level," says Yucha, who previously served as associate dean for nursing research at the University of Florida. "Building a research program, as we're doing in nursing, benefits the entire school. The new knowledge created through research improves our teaching efforts. Also, faculty members engaged in research are able to obtain external funding, which in turn supports the programs we offer."

In the years that followed Yucha's arrival, the school's research effort was bolstered with the hiring of five research-active faculty members, including an associate dean for research, a full-time research coordinator to support new projects, and an editorial liaison to assist faculty with grant applications.

The scholarly productivity of nursing faculty began to climb dramatically: Total publications nearly tripled from 2004 to 2007, and scholarly presentations jumped from 11 to 101. Funded grants climbed from just three to 14 during that time. Given the school's relatively small research faculty of only 14, the results are impressive, Yucha says. Yucha herself contributes to the school's scholarly reputation by publishing, presenting at professional conferences, and serving as editor of the respected journal, Biological Research for Nursing.

Understanding Nursing Research

While nursing research continues to grow at UNLV, nursing faculty invariably face a challenge associated with perception: Casual observers tend to overlook nursing as an academic endeavor that benefits, as all do, from the performance of research. Nursing is often perceived as a professional or clinical program rather than a scholarly one; as a result, nurse researchers often encounter a lack of understanding from colleagues in the scientific community about what they study.

"Most people picture nurses in a hospital or clinic because that's what they've been exposed to," says Barbara St. Pierre Schneider, associate dean for research. "While we've all benefited from the care of nurses in these frontline positions - be it in a clinic, emergency room, or even at school - nurses are also working behind-the-scenes, through research, to answer the questions that will lead to improved quality of life."

According to St. Pierre Schneider, many scholars and researchers outside of nursing aren't aware that nursing professors and students conduct research. After all, it was only a little more than 20 years ago that the National Institutes of Health formally established what is now the National Institute for Nursing Research.

"Nursing is a venerable profession, but nursing research developed only recently," says St. Pierre Schneider. "It evolved because there are questions nurses ask that no one else does."

For example, physicians tend to focus their research on the cause and cure of disease. Nurse researchers, on the other hand, study the physical, psychological, and social response to health and illness; that is, nurse researchers holistically address health both for the individual and the larger population.

They also study patient comfort and care, effective nursing practices, and the profession of nursing itself.

"Nursing researchers don't just look at illness, but wellness as a whole. In the end, the total health of the person is at the core," says St. Pierre Schneider.

The changing climate of health care in America is making nursing research more important than ever, according to Nancy York, UNLV assistant nursing professor. Nurses, with their unique positions on the frontlines of care, both in hospital settings and in the community, are perhaps in the best position of all health care professionals to identify problems and test theories.

"Whether it's health promotion, patient or worker safety, or disease prevention, health care delivery has changed," says York. "In many ways, nurses offer a unique perspective in the scientific inquiry process. And it's that unique perspective that has and will continue to allow nurse researchers to play an even greater role in the scientific research community."