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Editorial: Nursing Research or Not? Is it a Matter of Choice for Members of the Nursing Profession?

Competence refers to knowledge. It is crucial to any profession. Thus the profession engages in gathering knowledge to fulfill its purpose. As professional practice, nursing requires a wide variety of knowledge. Chin and Kramer (2004) provide a framework for integrating, defining and developing knowledge in nursing. They build on centuries of theories on knowing and emphasize four patterns of knowing in nursing: empirical, ethical, personal and aesthetic. For any knowledge of nursing, defined and aquired within each pattern to be applied into practice, the professional nurse needs to advance the knowledge as integrated state–of-the-art knowledge fit for a particular context of nursing. This integration is the basic element of competence and quality of nursing care. Thus, competence in nursing has everything to do with knowing. Knowing in turn involves aquiring that knowledge and forwarding it to those needing it to secure the quality of nursing care. It also has to do with being able to identify shortcomings in order to fill the knowledge gaps. Four papers in the present issue of the Nordic Journal of Nursing Research (Vård i Norden) are specifically dealing with the problem of integration of diverse patterns of knowing in nursing. One looks at the ambiguity of nurses towards the empirical aspect of knowledge in their practice (Holmgren & Eriksson, pp 4). Another evaluates clinical education aimed to advance the competence of cancer nurses in Norway (Reitan & Eide, pp 8). The third looks at how structure and routine needs to be systematically developed to secure the management of knowledge among health professionals as a critical attribute of successful health care systems (Vee & Hestetun, pp 50). Finally, Pedersen (pp 53) looks at the conflicting aspects of the patterns of knowing and how evidence based knowledge can accommodate patient perspectives and life values to become an integrated practice of different aspects of knowing. It is a matter of great concern that nurses are still arguing whether they have responsibility to do and promote nursing research and the advancement of evidence-based care within their work as professional nurses (Holmgren & Eriksson, pp 4). We can wonder how knowlege development comes about in nursing, what triggers research and its uses, and who is responsible for doing the research that clinical practice so badly needs. How do we organize advanced education such that nurses will appreciate the need to integrate all aspects of knowledge as a matter of their competence development, including scientific knowledge? How can the professional journals help in advancing and forwarding knowledge in nursing? One way is to make new evidence easily available. New technology provides us with tools, such as search engines on the internet (e.g. PROQUEST), making us able to see what knowledge is promoted within nursing worldwide. Using them we can improve the ability of nurses to access and use clinically relevant knowledge published in scholarly nursing journals such as Vård i Norden.