Nurse characteristics and professional autonomy.

Relationships between selected demographic characteristics and professional nursing autonomy were examined. Identification of such relationships can strengthen development of the professional nursing role. Usable responses were returned by 542 RNs in a random sample of 2,000 nurses from four states. The Personal Attributes Questionnaire (Spence, Helmreich, & Stapp, 1974) and Nursing Activity Scale (Schutzenhofer, 1987) were used. Significant relationships were noted among autonomy and the following: nursing education, practice setting, clinical specialty, functional role, membership in professional organizations, and gender stereotyped personality traits.

A center of nursing excellence: supporting the professional practice environment.

The Center of Nursing Excellence is a unique, multifaceted program that promotes the professional practice environment. The Center provides programs and services in six areas: career planning and development, nursing practice review, research and grants support, scholarly affairs, nursing outreach, and nursing resources. The Center serves as a resource to nurses at St. Louis Children's Hospital and in the nursing community at large.

Essentials for nurses in the year 2000.

As the health care delivery system changes ever faster, nursing is positioned to play a larger role than ever before. Such a role demands cognitive skills that nursing has yet to embrace effectively. A selected group of these essential skills is offered for consideration.

Scholarly pursuit in the clinical setting: an obligation of professional nursing.

Scholarly pursuit in the clinical setting is an essential component of the development of nursing as a profession. All nurses have a professional obligation to participate in the generation and testing of nursing knowledge. The success of such scholarly efforts calls for collaboration between nursing education and nursing service, new partnerships between academicians and clinicians, and the development of an array of research participation skills. As in other practice disciplines, nursing has experienced difficulty in translating its research into the practice setting. The lack of relevance of research to clinical practice, and the historic separation of academia and service have slowed the growth of scholarly activities in the clinical setting. However, changing attitudes about nursing research are creating new opportunities for scholarly pursuit in the clinical setting. Successful clinical research programs foster new roles for researchers and demonstrate planned social change to support positive attitudes about research among nurses. This paper will also examine how a few of these new paths of scholarly pursuit have been operationalized in one setting.

Collaboration by consortium.

Recognizing that collaboration is essential for the continuing development of the nursing profession, nursing leaders in the St. Louis area organized the Nursing Consortium for Research in Practice, uniting four university schools of nursing and four large hospitals. The aim of consortium is to assist nursing faculty and nursing service personnel in the conduct of collaborative clinical research. The consortium also seeks to educate nurses about research as a component of professional nursing practice and to assist them in implementing research findings in clinical practice. The efforts of the consortium during its first four years are discussed.