title: The clinical imperative in clinical nursing research.
abstract: Conducting preliminary clinical fieldwork to update clinical knowledge in preparation to plan and perform relevant, meaningful, credible and feasible clinical research is imperative. Clinical nurse investigators cannot generate relevant questions to study a current phenomenon with which they are not experienced. The nurse researcher's early involvement in the clinical world of health care as a prerequisite of proposal development not only contributes to the design of a study that has rigor and significance, but it also augments his or her competence and commitment to the improvement of patient outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Nursing, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, LA, USA. ysterl@lsuhsc.edu
authors.forename: Y M
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Sterling
mesh_terms: D015400:Clinical Nursing Research / Q000379:methods*; D004645:Empathy; D006801:Humans