Clinicians in nearly all practice areas are confronted with the challenges associated with delayed and impaired wound healing. Although nutrition plays a critical role in the healing process, controversy exists regarding the optimal nutrition regimen. This article reviews literature related to nutrition interventions that facilitate wound healing. The limitations of the research that forms the scientific basis of many nutrition recommendations are also examined. The limited availability of rigorously performed clinical studies to develop evidence-based guidelines for nutrition support in wound care emphasizes the need for further research and underscores the importance of individualizing the nutrition care plan for each patient.
Despite the fact that nursing informatics is entering its third decade as a specialty within nursing, many definitions still exist to describe the field. This paper offers a rationale for a definition for nursing informatics and a critical analysis of past definitions. An organizing framework of technology-oriented, conceptual, and role-oriented definitions is used to critique these definitions. Subsequently, a revised definition is proposed. This evolutionary definition integrates critical concepts from past work and adds components that are currently missing--patients, information communication, information structures, and decision making. A separate role specification for informatics nurse specialists is provided.
Although both the assumptions and methods of qualitative and quantitative approaches in nursing research are different, both have the goal of furthering the scientific basis for practice. A variety of qualitative approaches are available, and which approach to use depends on the purpose of the research. In general, qualitative investigations address broad questions related to description, discovery, or theory building, and, as a consequence, the researcher is concerned with the entire context surrounding the phenomenon of interest rather than concentrating on specific variables thought to influence that phenomenon. The type of data collected and the methods of analysis differ, but qualitative research demands the same careful attention to selecting a design appropriate to answer the research question and the same assurance of rigor in conducting the research and interpreting the results as is required in quantitative studies. When these issues are thoroughly addressed, the clinician has a basis for judging both the accuracy and the applicability of qualitative research findings.
Challenges arise in building the knowledge needed for evidence based practice partially because obtaining clinical research data is expensive and complicated, and many studies have small sample sizes. Combining data from several studies may have the advantage of increasing the impact of the findings, or expanding the population to which findings may be generalized. The use of common data elements will allow this combining and, in turn, create big data, which is an important approach that may accelerate knowledge development. This article discusses the philosophy of using common data elements across research studies and illustrates their use by the processes in a Developmental Center grant funded by the National Institutes of Health. The researchers identified a set of data elements and used them across several pilot studies. Issues that need to be considered in the adoption and implementation of common data elements across pilot studies include theoretical framework, purpose of the common measures, respondent burden, team work, managing large data sets, grant writing, and unintended consequences. We describe these challenges and solutions that can be implemented to manage them.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.