Expanding Horizons: RTNP Calls for Newer Forms of Scholarly Work

Abstract

As implied by the journal's title, Research and Theory for Nursing Practice (RTNP), our mission is to publish articles with direct relevance to nursing practice. Traditionally, this has included both classical research and theory articles within the domain of nursing. However, in recent years, several movements affecting health care and science are also impacting publication in health care broadly and in nursing specifically. These movements include the growing emphasis on quality, safety, and evidencebased practice as well as the emerging sciences of improvement and translation. Of particular application to nursing also is the rapid expansion of Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) programs that aim to produce advanced practice nurses with the knowledge and skills both to lead and participate in these movements. In fact, in the recent report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, the Institute of Medicine in its second recommendation specifically calls for a broad range of constituencies to expand opportunities for nurses to lead and diffuse collaborative improvement efforts. Private and public funders, health care organizations, nursing education programs, and nursing associations should expand opportunities for nurses to lead and manage collaborative efforts with physicians and other members of the health care team to conduct research and to redesign and improve practice environments and health systems. These entities should also provide opportunities for nurses to diffuse successful practices. (IOM, 2008, p. 2) Consequently, in its role as a venue for the diffusion of information that can inform and enable nurses to make and disseminate practice improvements, editors and reviewers at RTNP are clarifying, reframing, and expanding the nature of articles we solicit and select for publication. Herein, I invite submissions for several types of articles that are of great importance to advancing the mission of RTNP. LITERATURE REVIEWS Systematic reviews that seek to examine evidence pertaining to interventions are of great interest. Reviews should specify goals or questions guiding the review; parameters such as setting, population, or other factors focusing the review; and methods used to surface and include or exclude evidence in the review. Both quantitative (i.e., metaanalyses) and qualitative approaches to summarizing evidence are appropriate. A synthesis of information across studies should reveal new information of value to those seeking to use, apply, or further test the focal intervention(s). EVIDENCE-BASED PROTOCOLS Intervention protocols derived from systematic reviews of the literature are also of high importance. …