Discourse Realizing the Imperative of Clinical Nursing Research: The Experiences of a Collaborative Research Program in Long-Term Care

Abstract

The demographics of Canadian society are creating at least two imperatives for nurses and all health-care providers. The first is to create services sufficient to meet the health needs of the expanding aging population. The second is to undertake relevant research sufficient to ensure that the services created are as effective as possible. Health services for the aging population are frequently interrelated with the living environments of this population - a small but significant proportion of older people require a congregate environment where health care and supportive services are provided on a 24-hour basis, while other older people depend 011 home-care services in order to remain in their own homes. When older people live in long-term-care environments, the assistance they receive is frequently delivered by nonprofessional workers. In order for nursing research to meet the test of relevance, it must take into account this mix of nursing personnel, in the questions that are asked, the subjects who are recruited, and the interpretations that are drawn from the results.