Redesigning nursing practice. The partners in patient care model.

Several nursing practice models use nurse extenders/partners to extend nurses' time. The authors discuss the development, implementation, and evaluation of the "partner in patient care" (PIPC) model. Unique aspects of the model are emphasized, including use of a collaborative process to generate the design and guide the implementation; staff participation throughout the design and implementation of the project; and use of evaluation at each phase of the implementation process to improve on the outcomes.

Analysis of a decade of nursing practice research: 1977-1986.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the research focus, theoretical bases, research designs, statistical methods, and research findings of nursing practice research, 1977-1986. A secondary purpose was to assess the fit of nursing practice research topics within the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association's (NANDA) taxonomy. The sample consisted of 720 articles that met the definitional criteria of nursing practice research from six major refereed journals in nursing that primarily publish nursing research. Findings showed that 95% of research in nursing in the last decade was conducted by nurses as first authors, over half with doctoral degrees. Funded research increased as well as the trend toward multidisciplinary research and multisite studies. One-third of the studies focused on nursing intervention, and two-thirds were assessment-oriented. Although use of nursing conceptual models increased over the decade, theories or models from psychology, physiology, and sociology were used most often. There was an increase in use of sophisticated research methods and better reporting of reliability and validity. The use of NANDA as a taxonomy for classifying nursing practice research was assessed.