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dvanced education programs and training have allowed nurses to create new niches for themselves in research as well as patient care. Over the last five years, nurses at The Methodist Hospital began conducting formal research. A number of projects currently are under way with the goal of improving patient care and outcomes such as an ambulatory cancer pain management study, which explores the feasibility of collecting pain and other symptom data in outpatient centers across multiple institutions in the Texas Medical Center (TMC). The study examines the prevalence and severity of cancer-related pain and identifies other commonly reported symptoms in the outpatient setting. Methodist nurse practitioner Anne Bross, MSN, RN, FNP-BC, who serves as a co-investigator, has worked for two years with area hospital nurses to lay the groundwork for this multi-institutional study conducted simultaneously at The Methodist Hospital, Baylor Breast Care Center, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center and Memorial Hermann Hospital. Over a 12-month period, nurse researchers are asking patients with breast, lung, colorectal and prostate cancer in the outpatient area to participate in the study. Patients who agree to participate are given a questionnaire that asks a series of questions related to the severity of pain, symptoms and how it affects their activities over the course of 24 hours. “This information will be used to narrow the knowledge gap regarding pain and pain management,” Bross said. “It will help us develop improved interventions and patient education.”
32 䡲 VOLUME 4, NUMBER 2
Beverly Lamoth, RN
Anne Bross, MSN, RN, FNP-BC
This is only the second time TMC institutions have joined forces on a study of this nature, she said. “There has not been a lot of collaboration in the past among nurses but it’s gaining momentum,” she said. “Networking and sharing best practices is for the betterment of the patient. We are patient advocates. This is where nursing is going.”
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vidence of nurses conducting research goes as far back as the 19th century when Florence Nightingale, the iconic nurse who lived and worked in the late 1800s, documented sickness and mortality data in European military hospitals. Armed with factual data, she was able
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