The Connecticut Nursing Research Alliance is a group of organizations that came together in 1997 to develop a network to support nurses and nursing students in evidence-based practice activities including nursing research and research utilization.
The mission of the Alliance is to promote and improve the health of individuals and communities by supporting evidence-based nursing practice through collaborative efforts.
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Today, there is great emphasis being given to conduct professional nursing through evidence-based practice. Nursing, however, is both an art and a science and the acquisition of knowledge and skill to practice nursing still comes through many vehicles such as expert knowledge and intuition, derived from the experience from practicing nursing as well as the scholarly employment of the scientific method. Studies based on quantitative, qualitative and combination research methodologies serve to derive the science of this discipline. Application of research findings is done through various utilization models such as the one presented in this toolkit-Dr. Cheryl Stetler's Research Utilization Model©.
The shift towards evidence-based nursing practice to improve patient care outcomes is gaining momentum. Use of the scientific approach to promote and improve the health of individuals does not diminish the value of the intuitive aspect of nursing practice. The balance of these two processes remains essential for the delivery of effective, high quality nursing care. To assist professional nurses and nursing students to base their practice on evidence supported in the literature and developed through various research and research utilization methods, a group of universities and hospitals/VNA in Connecticut formed a collaborative to accomplish this goal.