title: Research an exciting journey and a career statement: a means to an end, putting rurality on the nursing research agenda.
abstract: Two issues were of importance to nurses in rural areas considering postgraduate studies. The first was the need for part-time study and what this entails. The second was a request that there be no research component within the postgraduate courses they identified. It is this second issue that I wish to address. I was a nonbeliever in the merit of research studies being integrated into nursing specialist programs. Following a long career in rural clinical nursing and management I have come full circle and now acknowledge the need to understand the role to base practice evidence that is generated through empirical research.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash Univeristy, Melbourne, Australia. sonia.allen@med.monash.edu.au
authors.forename: Sonia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Francis
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: O'Connor
mesh_terms: D004511:Education, Nursing, Graduate / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D024802:Nurse's Role; D015399:Nursing Research / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010934:Planning Techniques; D012107:Research Design; D012108:Research Personnel / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology; D012423:Rural Health; D013041:Specialties, Nursing / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration*