Nursing literature refers to articles in journals and texts in books devoted to the field of nursing.
Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health care providers by their approach to patient care, training, and scope of practice. Nurses practice in many specialties with differing levels of prescription authority. Many nurses provide care within the ordering scope of physicians, and this traditional role has shaped the public image of nurses as care providers. However, nurse practitioners are permitted by most jurisdictions to practice independently in a variety of settings. Since the postwar period, nurse education has undergone a process of diversification towards advanced and specialized credentials, and many of the traditional regulations and provider roles are changing.
Under the influence of Florence Nightingale, nursing became a scientific field of study and an independent discipline in healthcare. On March 6, 1886, the first nursing journal, The Nightingale was published, becoming the first nursing journal. [1] In 1900, the American Journal of Nursing began publication, becoming the first nursing journal to be owned and operated by nurses. It remains the oldest nursing journal still in circulation.
Florence Nightingale, was an English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing.
The American Journal of Nursing is a monthly peer-reviewed nursing journal. It was established in 1900. The editor-in-chief is Maureen Shawn Kennedy and it is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. In 2009 the journal was selected as one of the "100 Most Influential Journals in Biology and Medicine in the Last 100 Years" by the Biomedical and Life Sciences Division of the Special Libraries Association.
In 1952, the first journal dedicated to nursing research, Nursing Research was published. [2]
Nursing research is research that provides evidence used to support nursing practices. Nursing, as an evidence-based area of practice, has been developing since the time of Florence Nightingale to the present day, where many nurses now work as researchers based in universities as well as in the health care setting.
As the profession grew, new journals began to be published, including journals dedicated to various nursing specialties.
Nursing journals remain a primary method in which the nursing community shares information and disseminates research findings. These journals are most often peer-reviewed and contain editorials and reports of original research, including randomized controlled trials, observational studies, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and qualitative research. Some journals also include case reports and case studies.
An editorial, leading article (US) or leader (UK), is an article written by the senior editorial staff or publisher of a newspaper, magazine, or any other written document, often unsigned. Australian and major United States newspapers, such as The New York Times and The Boston Globe, often classify editorials under the heading "opinion".
Systematic reviews are a type of literature review that uses systematic methods to collect secondary data, critically appraise research studies, and synthesize findings qualitatively or quantitatively. Systematic reviews formulate research questions that are broad or narrow in scope, and identify and synthesize studies that directly relate to the systematic review question. They are designed to provide a complete, exhaustive summary of current evidence relevant to a research question. For example, systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials are key to the practice of evidence-based medicine, and a review of existing studies is often quicker and cheaper than embarking on a new study.
A meta-analysis is a statistical analysis that combines the results of multiple scientific studies. Meta-analysis can be performed when there are multiple scientific studies addressing the same question, with each individual study reporting measurements that are expected to have some degree of error. The aim then is to use approaches from statistics to derive a pooled estimate closest to the unknown common truth based on how this error is perceived. Existing methods for meta-analysis yield a weighted average from the results of the individual studies, and what differs is the manner in which these weights are allocated and also the manner in which the uncertainty is computed around the point estimate thus generated. In addition to providing an estimate of the unknown common truth, meta-analysis has the capacity to contrast results from different studies and identify patterns among study results, sources of disagreement among those results, or other interesting relationships that may come to light in the context of multiple studies.
With the advent of evidence-based nursing, the number of journals blossomed.
Evidence-based nursing (EBN) is an approach to making quality decisions and providing nursing care based upon personal clinical expertise in combination with the most current, relevant research available on the topic. This approach is using evidence-based practice (EBP) as a foundation. EBN implements the most up to date methods of providing care, which have been proven through appraisal of high quality studies and statistically significant research findings. The goal of EBN is to improve the health and safety of patients while also providing care in a cost-effective manner to improve the outcomes for both the patient and the healthcare system. EBN is a process founded on the collection, interpretation, appraisal, and integration of valid, clinically significant, and applicable research. The evidence used to change practice or make a clinical decision can be separated into seven levels of evidence that differ in type of study and level of quality. To properly implement EBN, the knowledge of the nurse, the patient's preferences, and multiple studies of evidence must all be collaborated and utilized in order to produce an appropriate solution to the task at hand. These skills are taught in modern nursing education and also as a part of professional training.
Most journal articles are indexed in National Library of Medicine's PubMed database as well as various other databases, including CINAHL.
Nightingale wrote extensively during her years as a nurse. Her most important work was Notes on Nursing in which she provided instructions for caregivers, including nurses, on how to provide care to the wounded and sick, as well as health promotion topics. Although not officially a textbook for nursing, it is considered the first scientific writing about nursing care.
The first scholarly textbook for nursing is generally accepted as Text-Book of the Principles and Practice of Nursing by Bertha Harmer, a Canadian nurse and early nurse educator. Virginia Henderson is regarded as one of the earliest nurse educators to expand the scholarly writings of nursing into textbooks for use in schools and colleges of nursing.
Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competences as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review methods are used to maintain quality standards, improve performance, and provide credibility. In academia, scholarly peer review is often used to determine an academic paper's suitability for publication. Peer review can be categorized by the type of activity and by the field or profession in which the activity occurs, e.g., medical peer review.
In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research.
Academic publishing is the subfield of publishing which distributes academic research and scholarship. Most academic work is published in academic journal article, book or thesis form. The part of academic written output that is not formally published but merely printed up or posted on the Internet is often called "grey literature". Most scientific and scholarly journals, and many academic and scholarly books, though not all, are based on some form of peer review or editorial refereeing to qualify texts for publication. Peer review quality and selectivity standards vary greatly from journal to journal, publisher to publisher, and field to field.
An academic or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and discussion of research. They are usually peer-reviewed or refereed. Content typically takes the form of articles presenting original research, review articles, and book reviews. The purpose of an academic journal, according to Henry Oldenburg, is to give researchers a venue to "impart their knowledge to one another, and contribute what they can to the Grand design of improving natural knowledge, and perfecting all Philosophical Arts, and Sciences."
A nursing school is a type of educational institution, or part thereof, providing education and training to become a fully qualified nurse. The nature of nursing education and nursing qualifications varies considerably across the world. Since the mid 20th century nursing education in many countries has undergone many enhancements.
Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes most peer-reviewed online academic journals and books, conference papers, theses and dissertations, preprints, abstracts, technical reports, and other scholarly literature, including court opinions and patents. While Google does not publish the size of Google Scholar's database, scientometric researchers estimated it to contain roughly 389 million documents including articles, citations and patents making it the world's largest academic search engine in January 2018. Previously, the size was estimated at 160 million documents as of May 2014. An earlier statistical estimate published in PLOS ONE using a Mark and recapture method estimated approximately 80–90% coverage of all articles published in English with an estimate of 100 million. This estimate also determined how many documents were freely available on the web.
Nurse education consists of the theoretical and practical training provided to nurses with the purpose to prepare them for their duties as nursing care professionals. This education is provided to nursing students by experienced nurses and other medical professionals who have qualified or experienced for educational tasks. Most countries offer nurse education courses that can be relevant to general nursing or to specialized areas including mental health nursing, pediatric nursing and post-operatory nursing. Courses leading to autonomous registration as a nurse typically last four years. Nurse education also provides post-qualification courses in specialist subjects within nursing.
The Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care is an academic faculty within King's College London. The faculty is the world's first nursing school to be continuously connected to a fully serving hospital and medical school. Established on 9 July 1860 by Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, it was a model for many similar training schools through the UK, Commonwealth and other countries for the latter half of the 19th century. It is primarily concerned with the education of people to become nurses and midwives. It also carries out nursing research, continuing professional development and postgraduate programmes. The Faculty forms part of the Waterloo campus on the South Bank of the River Thames and is now one of the largest faculties in the university.
Isabel Adams Hampton Robb (1860–1910) was an American nurse theorist, author, nursing school administrator and early leader. Hampton was the first Superintendent of Nurses at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, wrote several influential textbooks, and helped to found the organizations that became known as the National League for Nursing, the International Council of Nurses, and the American Nurses Association. Hampton also played a large role in advancing the social status of nursing through her work in developing a curriculum of more advanced training during her time at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing.
A nurse educator is a nurse who teaches and prepares licensed practical nurses (LPN) and registered nurses (RN) for entry into practice positions. They can also teach in various patient care settings to provide continuing education to licensed nursing staff. Nurse Educators teach in graduate programs at Master’s and doctoral level which prepare advanced practice nurses, nurse educators, nurse administrators, nurse researchers, and leaders in complex healthcare and educational organizations.
Medical literature is the scientific literature of medicine: articles in journals and texts in books devoted to the field of medicine. Many references to the medical literature include the health care literature generally, including that of dentistry, veterinary medicine, pharmacy, nursing, and the allied health professions.
Gerontological nursing is the specialty of nursing pertaining to older adults. Gerontological nurses work in collaboration with older adults, their families, and communities to support healthy aging, maximum functioning, and quality of life. The term gerontological nursing, which replaced the term geriatric nursing in the 1970s, is seen as being more consistent with the specialty's broader focus on health and wellness, in addition to illness.
Virginia Avenel Henderson, was an influential nurse, researcher, theorist and author.
The American Physiological Society was founded in 1887 with 28 members. Of them, 21 were graduates of medical schools, but only 12 had studied in institutions that had a professor of physiology. Today, it has 10,500 members, most of whom hold doctoral degrees in medicine, physiology or other health professions. Its mission then, as now, is to support research, education, and circulation of information in the physiological sciences.
Philippine E-Journals (PEJ) is an online bibliographic database and repository of academic journals from different colleges, universities, and professional organizations in the Philippines. It offers a wide array of academic journals of different academic disciplines. Philippine E-Journals is the product of the collaborative efforts of C&E Publishing and the participating educational institutions and organizations.
The Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) is a nonprofit membership organization of more than 37,000 registered nurses and other healthcare providers in patient care, education, research, and administration in oncology nursing.
Ian J Norman, RN, Ph.D., is a British professor of nursing, researcher, and author, based in London, UK. His research and writing is focused primarily in the fields of psychiatric and mental health nursing, and psychological treatments for people with mental health difficulties. Norman is currently an Assistant Principal, of King’s College London and Executive Dean of the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery at King’s. He is Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Nursing Studies.
The History of nursing in the United States focuses on the professionalization of nursing since the Civil War.