Q&A with the Editor of a New Book Highlighting the Legacy of Nursing Research at the University of Michigan
Dr. Shaké Ketefian is the editor of Shaping Nursing Science and Improving Health: The Michigan Legacy. She is a professor emerita at the University of Michigan School of Nursing where she served as the director of Doctoral and Postdoctoral Studies during the era when the majority of the scientific areas discussed in the book were developed.
Q: What inspired you to write the book?
A: The University of Michigan School of Nursing (UMSN) is celebrating several important milestones including our 125th anniversary, the 40th anniversary of our PhD program, and U-M’s Bicentennial in 2017. I wanted to prepare this book to celebrate these anniversaries by recognizing the outstanding contributions that nursing faculty and PhD alumni have made to health care and society through research and scholarship.
Q: Would you give us an overview of the book?
A: The book is a compilation of the nursing research that UMSN faculty and PhD alumni have developed, and the impact that body of science has had on nursing care, health care delivery, nursing education, and the larger society.
Q: What would you like the general public to know about nursing research?
A: Nurses are uniquely qualified to conduct research that promotes health and prevents illness, as well as research focused on healing and managing symptoms, through their frontline position caring and advocating for patients. While the public has highly favorable views about nurses in terms of respect and trust, this book shows that nursing interventions are based on scientific studies generated by nurse scientists and others.
Q: What effects do you hope this book will have?
A: I hope that the wide spectrum of the nursing community and other health professionals will find this volume very useful and that it presents highly significant programs of research and their applications in different domains. The scientists who contributed to it are all nationally and internationally recognized individuals. As well, the general public and policy makers will be enlightened by what is described in the book, and can derive clear policy implications.
Q: What inspired your interest in research?
A: Years ago I conducted research to find out to what extent nursing research is used in various domains of nursing such as practice, education, leadership, and policy. I found out that research was not very accessible and was only read by a limited number of individuals, therefore, its application has been limited. This finding inspired me to make research more accessible and to create environments where translation and implementation of research results are brought to bear toward the goal of improving peoples’ lives.
Q: What would you say to a young nursing student considering a research career?
A: I would definitely urge her/him to pursue the idea and would assist by showing concrete avenues for achieving that goal. In nursing, the number of researchers has gradually increased, but it is still less than 1% of the total number of the registered nurse population. In addition, those who are conducting research have other responsibilities such as teaching and/or administration, and this affects their productivity.
