2013 Beatrice Renfield Lecture in Research Nursing

Research and Innovations in Nursing and Health Care

The U.S. is faced with the challenge of improving the health of the population and the quality of health care, while reducing costs. Nurses are poised to help the nation in its quest to meet these aims and, historically, have been innovators in health care. The American Academy of Nursing's Raise the Voice Campaign has sought to highlight contemporary nurses' innovations. An analysis of the work of these "Edge Runners" reveals that there are common themes across nurse-led innovations, including a focus on the goals of the individual, family or community of interest.

Furthermore, research can provide the foundation for the innovation or be a necessary condition of spreading a successful model of care or intervention. Yet challenges in conducting such research persist and include issues of design, the innovators' preparation in research, funding, and ethics. Diana J. Mason, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, a national leader in nursing, health policy and media, will address these issues, focusing on current and future research on nurse-led innovations in health care.

Dr. Mason is the Rudin Professor of Nursing and Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Center for Health, Media, and Policy at Hunter College, City University of New York. She is Strategic Adviser for the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action that is focused on implementing the recommendations in the Institute of Medicine’s report on The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. For over 10 years, she served as Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Nursing, and continues in an emeritus capacity. Under her leadership, the journal received numerous awards for editorial excellence, editorials, articles, news, and dissemination.

The author of over 200 publications, she is the lead Co-Editor of the award-winning book, Policy and Politics in Nursing and Health Care and of The Nursing Profession: Development, Challenges, and Opportunities, part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Book Series. Her research includes the representation of health professionals on governing boards of health care organizations in New York City and a series of studies of managed care arrangements with nurse practitioners. She serves on the National Advisory Committee of Kaiser Health News. Since 1985, she has been a producer and moderator of “Healthstyles,” a weekly radio program in New York City.

In 2011, she was elected president-elect of the American Academy of Nursing. Dr. Mason is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Long Island University and an Honorary Doctorate of Science from West Virginia University, and a fellowship in the New York Academy of Medicine.