| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 120-121 |
| Number of pages | 2 |
| Journal | Nursing outlook |
| Volume | 61 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 2013 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Jean F. Wyman PhD, RN, FAAN, FGSA ∗ wyman002@umn.edu School of Nursing, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN ∗ Corresponding author: Dr. Jean F. Wyman, School of Nursing, University of Minnesota, 5-140 Weaver-Densford Hall, Minneapolis, MN 55455. The CANS grant program is one of the important ways that the Council facilitates the development of nursing science careers. Established in 2007, the grant program provides small grants to six nursing research organizations who are members of the CANS Steering Committee (American Nurses Foundation [ANF], Sigma Theta Tau International [STTI], and the four regional nursing research societies—Eastern Nursing Research Society, Midwest Nursing Research Society, Southern Nursing Research Society, and Western Institute of Nursing). Funding for the grant program is generated, in part, from revenues received from the Special Topics Conference and the State of the Science Congress on Nursing Research. The CANS constituent partners have administered these grants in several ways based upon their mission, organizational needs, and resources. The regional nursing research societies have typically offered these funds as a dissertation grant opportunity. Eligibility for these grants requires both CANS and regional nursing research society membership. Some regional research societies provide matching funds. Some regional societies have chosen to use the funds to support keynote speakers for their annual conferences because they believe this better meets their organizational mission by reaching a broader audience in disseminating the most recent advances in nursing science. The potential influence of the keynote speaker in bringing new ideas that can shape research programs of many nurses is viewed as a having a greater impact than funding one pilot study. The ANF and STTI provide small grants to eligible nurses with dual membership in CANS and their respective societies. These are open to doctoral students as well as seasoned researchers. Since the CANS grant program was initiated in 2007, the Council is proud to report that, more than $62,000 in awards has been distributed to partner organizations. These have resulted in nine grants to nurse researchers and 15 grants to nursing doctoral students. Diverse areas have been addressed, such as women's cardiovascular health; maternal–child interactions; sexual decision-making in Latino couples; breast cancer risk factors; telephone support after open-heart surgery; nurse-delivered intervention for unhealthy alcohol use; canine companionship during forensic interviews of children; pain measurement in premature infants; disparities in pneumococcal vaccine uptake; and an intervention to decrease gynecologic problems during military deployment. Several investigators have been successful in using these pilot studies in garnering subsequent grant awards. For example, Dr. Katherine Gregory from the William F. Connell School of Nursing at Boston College who received an ANF/CANS grant (2007–2008) to study urinary biomarkers predicting necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm infants received a National Institutes of Health K23 grant to extend her work to examine additional biochemical predictors. Victoria Pak, who received an Eastern Nursing Research Society/CANS grant (2010–2011), received a National Institutes of Health F31 grant to assess workplace phthalate exposures among massage therapy students. At a recent CANS Steering Committee meeting, committee members reviewed the different eligibility criteria and approaches used by our constituent partners in implementing the CANS grants. We approved a motion in how our partner organizations could use the CANS grant awards so that there could be flexibility in use of funds that would advance both the Council's and regional research society's missions. However, funds could not be used for infrastructure support. Procedures are being developed to assist the research organizations in how they request and report the use of these funds to CANS, which will assist the Steering Committee in better monitoring the outcomes associated with our investment. The Steering Committee also set a goal of increasing the amount of the grant awards. For more information about eligibility and procedures for applying for the various CANS-sponsored grants with our constituent partner organizations, see their individual websites. The regional nursing research society grant deadlines occur in the fall (October–December). The deadline for the CANS/STTI grant is July 1, 2013. For further information, see http://www.nursingsociety.org/Research/Grants/Pages/grantsbydate.aspx ). The deadline for the ANF/CANS grant is May 3, 2013. For further information, see http://anfonline.org/Doc-Vault/Programs/NursingResearchGrant .