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2012 News Archives

Researchers outline Duke Translational Nursing Institute’s successes

May 21, 2012 - A recently published article by Rob Califf, MD, and other Duke researchers discusses how the DTNI has combined the missions of academic and health service centers.

Partnerships between academic and health service centers are a good way to improve the clinical outcomes of patients, according to a paper by DCRI researchers.

The paper, published in the Journal of Nursing Scholarship, focused on the experiences of the Duke Translational Nursing Institute (DTNI). The DTNI was established as part of the Duke Translational Medicine Institute to improve patient outcomes through the development and use of evidence in the delivery of care.

Rob Califf, MD (story)The paper’s authors were Bradi B. Granger, Janet Prvu-Bettger, and Diane Holditch-Davis of the Duke University School of Nursing; Julia Aucoin and Mary Ann Fuchs of Duke University Health System; Pamela H. Mitchell of the DTNI; Deborah Roth and Robert M. Califf (pictured) of the DTMI; and Catherine L. Gilliss, dean of the School of Nursing.

In their paper, the authors note that nurses are increasingly responsible for many aspects of patient care. To translate scientific knowledge into real-world innovations that benefit patients, partnerships are needed between academic centers that conduct clinical research and health service centers whose nurses provide care.

However, these partnerships also present a number of challenges. Although academic and health service centers share an overall goal of improving the state of health care, they often differ in their business models, incentives, and approaches to problem solving, as well as having differences in priorities. These differences can make collaboration difficult.

The DTNI was established to help bridge the gap between these two kinds of institutions. Composed of unit-based research teams, supported by a partnership structure that integrates key research and care procedures and targets defined priority outcomes, the DTNI was designed to unify the clinical, operational, and financial agendas of both academic and service settings and develop a common path for developing shared work processes.

To that end, the DTNI has created training and mentoring teams for its students and staff, integrated electronic patient data access and analysis methods, and emphasized multidisciplinary involvement on research teams at the unit level. It has also created a unified leadership structure in which the institute is codirected by the dean of the School of Nursing and the vice president of patient care and chief nurse executive for the health system.

As a result of these innovations, the authors reported, the DTNI has seen improved education and training, increased shared methodological approaches and assets, enhanced cross-disciplinary research across sites, and improved clinical outcomes for patients. They cautioned, however, that such efforts take time, trust, and mutual commitment, which are difficult to sustain.

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