Current Initiatives
An overview of information about the current program initiatives and recent research projects, and their history.
National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) focuses on clinical and fundamental research, as well as health and illness research training (Fitzpatrick & Kazer, 2012). The research work is meant to enhance health and prevent diseases. It also aims at improving the quality of life. Furthermore, it aims at improving health disparities. Several program initiatives and research projects such as End of Life and Palliative Care Initiative have been identified. This was after the realization that many people die due to a lack of proper care from the healthcare providers and the community at large. In addition, it had been realized that the advancements that have been realized in medicine and public health are instrumental to long life spans (Clark, 2013).
The health professionals and the community should commit themselves to improving care for dying patients, particularly young children and old people. The NINR works with other institutions such as to sponsor the aforementioned initiatives: End of Life and Palliative Care Initiative (Hinshaw & Grady, 2011). These two initiatives are related to research, education of the health care providers, and community involvement. Social science, biological, and behavioral approaches apply in NINR’s end-of-life and palliative initiatives. These strategies enhance an understanding of the challenges that patients with life threatening diseases face. They also help the caregivers to address the challenges.
NINR supports researchers as they explore interventions to come up with ways of providing patients with high quality and evidence based palliative care. Some of the research topics included in the initiatives include caregivers and providers, using effective palliative care to relieve pain, and suffering and distressing symptoms among others (Hinshaw & Grady, 2011). The NINR supports researches in end-of-life and palliative care initiatives for various reasons. The first reason is to understand the complex issues associated with palliative and end-of-life care. The second reason is to establish and apply relevant strategies to reduce both the physical and psychological burdens of the caregivers, especially when the patient they are caring for is in the stage of end-of –life. The third reason for conducting research in the two initiatives is to create communication strategies for patients, families, clinicians, and communities (Fitzpatrick & Kazer, 2012). This helps the caregivers to make decisions in complex care or treatment options in life threatening illnesses.
Current Funding Priorities
NINR and institutes of NIH provide funds for researches and training. The National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) allocates 6 per cent of its budget for researches and training (Grove, Burns & Gray, 2013). Compared to the other NIH institutes, NINR provides a higher proportion. Many nurse researchers are faculty members in nursing colleges. This institute intends to provide the next generation of nurses with the relevant faculty to educate them. NINR main objective is to assist the institute. This is particularly in directing funding decisions to relevant researches. The institute has experts to identify areas that need research work (Grove, Burns & Gray, 2013). This ensures that the institute’s fund gets directed to the most prioritized researches.
The NINR is guided by various body’s and organizations in carrying outs its mandate. In general, NINR funds researches that focus on innovation. Nurse scientists with capabilities of discovering new solutions are more considered by NINR than those that research on the existing solutions.
References
Clark, D. (2013). Transforming the culture of dying: The work of the Project on Death in America. New York: Oxford University Press.
Fitzpatrick, J.J., & Kazer, M.W. (2012). Encyclopedia of nursing research. New York: Springer Pub.
Grove, S.K., Burns, N., & Gray, J. (2013). The practice of nursing research: Appraisal, synthesis, and generation of evidence. St. Louis, Mo: Elsevier/Saunders.
Hinshaw, A.S., & Grady, P.A. (2011). Shaping health policy through nursing research. New York, NY: Springer.