The School of Nursing has been an integral part of Duke University since its opening in 1931. The Schools of Medicine and Nursing and the then 400-bed Duke Hospital opened that year, and today these two schools, together with the allied health programs, and the Duke University Health System make up Duke Medicine. The mission of the School of Nursing is to create a center of excellence for the advancement of nursing science, the promotion of clinical scholarship, and the education of advanced practitioners.

Translational Research within the SON Educational Program

As an applied discipline, nursing uses knowledge in the service of solving problems of human health and caring. Within the discipline, the notion of “translation” has been used to refer to the use of knowledge to change or improve the delivery of and outcomes of care.

SON Education Program in Clinical Research

Most of the research conducted by nurses at Duke SON is clinical research, so the educational focus, from the basic practice level (BSN) continuing through the specialty practice level (MSN) to the research degree (PhD), is focused on teaching nurses how to conduct clinical research. No specific course work is offered in the basic sciences or laboratory-related research.

SON Educational Program in Community/Outcomes Research

Through its ABSN, MSN, and PhD programs, Duke SON has become a center of excellence for the advancement of nursing science and scholarship, the education of advanced practitioners, and the development of systems for rapid entry of innovation and best practices into community populations. Students, graduates, and faculty seek to enhance nursing care and influence the health care delivery system to be increasingly responsive to the health care needs of people of all cultures, economic levels, and geographic locations.

SON Collaboration with the DTMI

With knowledge that translating research into practice requires a multifaceted, systemic process of promoting evidenced-based practice guidelines, the Duke School of Nursing is laying the groundwork to unify Duke Nursing (academic nurse scientists and practicing nurses) through a Center for Innovation, Practice Excellence, and Translation Science. One of the goals of this Center is to investigate the methods and variables that influence the adoption of evidence-based practices to improve clinical decision making in the delivery of health services.

Duke SON will rely heavily on DTMI infrastructure to support protocol development through pilot studies and to partner with other disciplines in effective community-based interventions. CTSA will provide the opportunity for nurses, physicians, and other health care providers to discuss the state of translation science at Duke, core methodological and measurement issues, the credibility of synthesized evidence, stakeholder buy-in, the impact of translation science on public policy, and the specific agenda for translation science in Durham, North Carolina, and regionally.

The DTMI will allow nurses to participate in large multidisciplinary efforts to train clinical investigators in translation science and to use nursing informatics and technology to rapidly collect data (e.g., nurse-sensitive indicators) from large-scale data sets and clinical repositories to develop and test approaches to gaining entrée to "pockets of risk" in clinical populations. Through DTMI support, nurses can test the utility of conceptual models to guide translation activities and examine how translation processes vary across settings, environments, provider competencies, and patient populations.

More Information: Visit Duke's School of Nursing Website.

	Catherine L. Gilliss, DNSc, RN, FAAN DTMI - Nursing Core Professor of Nursing Dean of the School of Nursing Vice Chancellor for Nursing Affairs More Info ...
	Diane Holditch-Davis, PhD, RN, FAAN DTMI Nursing Core Marcus C. Hobbs Distinguished Professor of Nursing Associate Dean, Research Affairs