Her experience as a staff nurse, and subsequently, as a Clinical Nurse Specialist lead her to question how to achieve optimal patient outcomes. In her dissertation, Minick explored the perceptions of nurses regarding early recognition of patient problems. The phenomenological study determined common ways of knowing and caring among nurses. It is this elusive link that she is trying to uncover with her research. This belief is not only manifest in her own research, but in her teaching and mentoring of students.
Nursing is a relatively young science and there is tremendous opportunity for original research.
Students who have worked with Minick say, her enthusiasm for research is infectious. As of fall 1998 she said eight of her advisees have obtained funding for their dissertation work. Minick says her research is also immediately applicable to the classroom. Listening in depth to expert nurses describe ways of knowing and patterns of caring enables her to teach her students how to connect with patients without becoming overwhelmed. One of her goals is to have nurses be able to talk about their practice and tell a story about a patient.