I am Dr. Mary Naylor, Associate Professor at the School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania. Today I am presenting the fiscal year 2000 appropriations recommendations of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing for nursing research and education. AACN represents over 530 baccalaureate and graduate nursing education programs in senior colleges and universities across the United States. These needed funds are being well spent to improve the public health. Please let me explain our reasons.
Nursing research contributes significantly to wellness and health outcomes .
The National Institute of Nursing Research performs a wide span of clinical research, developing and testing interventions for promoting health and preventing disease. NINR research has made a difference by identifying ways, for example, to reduce high blood pressure in young urban African-American men at high risk for cardiovascular disease, to help teach children how to prevent and manage their asthma symptoms and to identify pain reducing drugs that work better for women. Nursing and its research are relevant to virtually every condition and disease within the health care delivery system. Indeed interdisciplinary research partially funded by NINR increases the value of NIH research and is complementary to biomedical research. I would like to share with you my own example of how NINR research improves outcomes and cost effectiveness.