Nurse scientists are gaining popularity in hospital settings, but many systems are struggling to find the right structures and resources to support them.
“The question is not whether hospitals can afford to invest in nurse scientists,” Kathryn Connell, PhD, RN, assistant professor of biobehavioral health sciences at University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and clinical nurse on the surgical ICU at Penn Medicine Pennsylvania Hospital, both based in Philadelphia, told Becker’s. “In an era demanding rapid innovation, workforce resilience and public trust, the question is whether they can afford not to. The infrastructure we build now determines whether nursing’s unique insights, gathered through hours at the bedside, transform healthcare or remain untapped.”
Nurse scientists fill the gap between curiosity and evidence-based changes in protocols and practices. They help bedside staff build their studies, mentor them through the process and help them turn data into evidence-based practice, and demonstrate return on investment. Tapping nurse scientists to their full potential requires structure, resources and integrated job descriptions.
“The key is intentional integration, a seamless care-research-education loop in which each day’s work improves tomorrow’s care,” Dr. Connell said. “Hospital-based nurse scientists already excel at advancing evidence-based practice and quality improvement. When these roles are connected to active clinical practice and academic scholarship through aligned reporting structures and shared evaluation metrics, we create a true learning health system. This is not just theory; it is how everyday observations are transformed into rigorous studies that rapidly improve care.”
These shared goals and reporting lines can make it easier for problems spotted on shifts to turn into studies and proven solutions. But to get started, systems must provide three non-negotiable resources: time, data and sponsorship.
“First, nurse scientists need protected time with clear expectations so clinical, research and teaching duties do not compete,” Dr. Connell, who is also a nurse scientist at Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center in Philadelphia, said. “Second, ready access to reliable data and analytic support that turns bedside questions into answers without requiring them to build data systems. Nurse scientists are well positioned to identify critical patterns at the bedside, but we need systems that convert those observations into actionable evidence without expecting us to build pipelines and infrastructure ourselves. Third, visible executive sponsorship that links nursing inquiry to enterprise priorities, including safety, quality and workforce resilience. This includes streamlined institutional review board processes, rapid transitions between quality improvement and research and unit-level flexibility that treats nurse-led research as mission-critical, not optional.”
With the right resources and structures in place, ROI in clinical outcomes, workforce strength and organizational excellence will be easier to show. Many systems are already seeing improvements in clinical operations such as shortening length of stay, in reduced burnout among nurses and higher retention rates, and in better organizational positioning with Magnet journey support and external funding capture.
Lastly, nurse scientists need more integrated job descriptions.
“We need to create positions where bedside practice, independent research programs and academic appointments are explicitly integrated, not patched together across multiple job descriptions but designed as cohesive roles with appropriate FTE allocation and aligned evaluation criteria,” Dr. Connell said. “The biggest opportunity for nurse scientists is building the first generation of formally recognized, adequately resourced nurse scientist-practitioners who can lead NIH-funded programs while maintaining clinical credibility.”
