The nation is increasingly focused on the need to characterize successful population-focused health promotion strategies. Academic community nursing centers provide a non-traditional model of primary care delivery that merges traditional medical management with primary prevention and health promotion strategies to improve the health of surrounding communities (The Lundeen Nursing Center Model). Collectively, these academic nursing centers serve the health and illness needs of a diverse population of residents that are marginalized and most likely to experience disparities in health. The Midwest Nursing Centers Consortium Research Network (MNCCRN) is one of only two nursing research networks funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality for the Practice Based Research Network (PBRN) funded initiative, and is the only funded research network comprised exclusively of nursing centers. The MNCCRN is comprised of 20 community nursing centers representing 13 midwestern universities. One of the overall goals of the MNCCRN is to establish a collaborative program of participatory community-focused research with underserved populations that will inform primary practice, health professional education and health care policy. This presentation will outline the processes involved in building the practice-based research network infrastructure including issues surrounding web-based data warehousing and implementing research studies across state lines and within different university sites. The virtues of teleconferencing will also be discussed as a mechanism to improve communication between nursing centers participating in research studies and ultimately, improve the reliability of interventions across geographically distant research sites. Strategic plans by the MNCCRN for translating research findings into practice will also be described.
Session #1122 - Midwest Nursing Centers Consortium Research Network: A Novel Approach to Physical Activity and Nutrition Interventions across Nursing Centers
The 29th Annual MNRS Research Conference (April 1-4, 2005)