title: Twenty-five years of critical care nursing scholarship in Australia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Australian Critical Care has been published since 1988 and has been an important medium for the development of critical care nursing scholarship in Australia over 25 years.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To review scholarship in critical care nursing in Australia since 1988 and record its progress in the context of developments in nursing education and intensive and critical care practice.
  
  
  METHODS
  Australian Critical Care issues since 1988 were reviewed, and abstracts from the Australian and New Zealand Annual Scientific Meeting on Intensive Care published in Australian Critical Care since the 1991 Meeting. Available evidence for the contribution of this body of scholarship to critical care nursing practice and patient care was considered.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Original research reports and review articles have steadily increased from 1988 to 2012. The peak years for research publications were 2001, 2005 and 2012, and for reviews 2010 and 2011. Approximately 760 abstracts were presented at the Annual Scientific Meeting from 1991 to 2010; overall 24% were found lead to peer-reviewed publications, with an increase to 30% in recent years.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Over 25 years, the scholarship of critical care nursing in Australia has evolved into an established area of disciplinary knowledge, based firmly in practice. Our discipline has witnessed the opportunity for PhD training, the introduction of professorial positions, a knowledge base built on original research and rigorous reviews, and sustainable dissemination. The challenges are to further strengthen this development, increase publication of research that is done, to demonstrate the influence on practice and to develop sustainable research funding.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health, University of Technology, Sydney, NSW, Australia; University of Technology, Sydney & Northern Sydney Local Health District, NSW, Australia. Sharon.McKinley@uts.edu.au
authors.forename: Sharon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: McKinley
authors.forename: Doug
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Elliott
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D064648:Critical Care Nursing / Q000193:education / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D017712:Peer Review, Research; D010506:Periodicals as Topic