title: Nurse scientists overcoming challenges to lead transdisciplinary research teams.
abstract: Increasingly, scientific funding agencies are requiring that researchers move toward an integrated, transdisciplinary team science paradigm. Although the barriers to and rewards of conducting this type of research have been discussed in the literature, examples of how nurse investigators have led these teams to reconcile the differences in theoretical, methodological, and/or analytic perspectives that inevitably exist are lacking. In this article, we describe these developmental trajectory challenges through a case study of one transdisciplinary team, focusing on team member characteristics and the leadership tasks associated with successful transdisciplinary science teams in the literature. Specifically, we describe how overcoming these challenges has been essential to examining the complex and potentially cumulative effects that key intersections between legal, social welfare, and labor market systems may have on the health of disadvantaged women. Finally, we discuss this difficult but rewarding work within the context of lessons learned and transdisciplinary team research in relation to the future of nursing science.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC. Electronic address: skneipp@email.unc.edu.
authors.forename: Shawn M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Kneipp
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC.
authors.forename: Donna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gilleskie
authors.affiliation: School of Social Policy, The London School of Economics, London, UK.
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sheely
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC; The Gillings Global School of Public Health, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC.
authors.forename: Todd
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schwartz
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Services, Orange County, NC.
authors.forename: Robert M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Gilmore
authors.affiliation: The Southern Coalition for Social Justice, Durham, NC.
authors.forename: Daryl
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Atkinson
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D008297:Male; D054526:Men's Health; D017146:Models, Organizational; D015399:Nursing Research / Q000458:organization & administration*; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014481:United States; D035862:Vulnerable Populations; D016387:Women's Health
keywords: Health inequities; Nursing science; Team science; Transdisciplinary research