Hello Kathryn

This paper looks at 1952-2000; it examines each decade. I have only skimmed it, but have saved it to read in greater depth as it looks fascinating:

Flaskerud, J. H., Lesser, J., Dixon, E., Anderson, N., Conde, F., Kim, S., ... & Verzemnieks, I. (2002). Health disparities among vulnerable populations: evolution of knowledge over five decades in Nursing Research publications. Nursing Research, 51(2), 74-85.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11984377

This book looks possible - you can access it online (link below); see Ch 2, p.17, Evolution of research in building evidence-based nursing practice. In Google Scholar, there are some pdf links, but I could not access them (but the Google book link works):

Grove, S. K., Burns, N., & Gray, J. (2012). The practice of nursing research: Appraisal, synthesis, and generation of evidence. Elsevier Health Sciences.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=StTsAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA17&lpg=PA17&dq=research+nurses+role+development+over+time+1950s+1960s+1970s+1980s+1990s&source=bl&ots=WYPY5cgp61&sig=s9DCPn8fZ4tj6QH-mBKRV6sQLsI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAGoVChMIsbXUxqGfxwIVipgaCh1VbAxa#v=onepage&q=research%20nurses%20role%20development%20over%20time%201950s%201960s%201970s%201980s%201990s&f=false

This pdf - Research in Nursing - is also probably relevant:

Moule, P., & Goodman, M. (2009). Nursing research: An introduction. Sage.

http://www.sagepub.in/upm-data/25224_01_Moule_&_Goodman_Ch_01.pdf.

The complete book is available to browse on Google:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=B2GXsdT8d-AC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=research+in+Nursing+Moule+%26+Goodman-&ots=wSU3HJLSmN&sig=z4xb5AL6Dz5gmH6F2UJPw0OIcmI#v=onepage&q=research%20in%20Nursing%20Moule%20%26%20Goodman-&f=false

 . . but I think the 1st chapter (as in the pdf) with a section 'The historical context of nursing research' is the one that answers your question.

This (below) is a book, so I only looked briefly, but you can do a word search, and I searched for 'research'. It may be of interest?:

Savage, E. B. (1998). An examination of the changes in the professional role of the nurse outside Ireland: a report prepared for the commission on nursing.

http://hse.openrepository.com/hse/bitstream/10147/46434/1/7635.pdf.

See p.43 in this book, also on Google for browsing:

DeLaune, S., & Ladner, P. (2010). Fundamentals of nursing. Cengage Learning.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=xtpt_88JeVUC&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=research+nurses+role+development+over+time+1950s+1960s+1970s+1980s+1990s&source=bl&ots=Td69HRG3Il&sig=SRgps65AETnKS-1grfwACDGLsBo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CD0Q6AEwBGoVChMIsbXUxqGfxwIVipgaCh1VbAxa#v=onepage&q=research%20nurses%20role%20development%20over%20time%201950s%201960s%201970s%201980s%201990s&f=false

This, again, is a book, and I haven't looked in depth, but it might be of use:

ORIGINAL PRACTICE DEVELOPMENT AND RESEARCH

Action research: genesis, evolution and orientations

Angie Titchen

FoNS 2015 International Practice Development Journal 5 (1) [1]

http://www.fons.org/Resources/Documents/Journal/Vol5No1/IPDJ_0501_01.pdf. 

This paper was too early for me to be able to access; I'm not sure that it is relevant to nursing:

Cragan, J. F., & Wright, D. W. (1990). Small group communication research of the 1980s: A synthesis and critique. Communication Studies, 41(3), 212-236.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10510979009368305#.Vcj7-JUtDIU

Very best wishes

I found your question very interesting

Mary

Hi,

also, you can find a useful information on nursing development, theory, philosophy in the following recently published book

 J. J. Fitzpatrick & A. L. Whall (Eds.). Conceptual models of nursing: Global perspectives. Upper Saddle, NJ: Pearson. ISBN-10: 0133805751 • ISBN-13: 9780133805758

Winters, J. and Ballou, K. A. (2004), The idea of nursing science. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 45: 533–535. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2648.2003.02937.x

Thank you everyone for your references - definitely gives me some information to get going with

kathryn

Take a look at Julie Fairman's Context and Contingency in the History of Post World War II Nursing Scholarship in the United States -  I believe you can download it from Research Gate (on this site)  - I will try to locate a copy as well and post the pdf file.  Dr. Fairman is a noted scholar in the history of nursing and is the director of the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of Nursing History (located at the University of Pennsylvania).  Her work, and that of other nurse historians will assist you in  your search.

Also,take a look at the website - American Association for the History of Nursing (AAHN.org) as it offers several resources for historical data in nursing.  

The article can be found in the Journal of Nursing Scholarship - 2008

40th Anniversary of JNS

Context and Contingency in the History of Post World

War II Nursing Scholarship in the United States

Julie Fairman

Purpose:

To examine the context for the development of nursing scholarship post World

War II.

Methods:

Historiographical analysis of the social, political, and cultural context of nurs-

ing scholarship in the postwar period, with an understanding of how this context shaped

nursing scholarship.

Findings:

The development of nursing scholarship was influenced by three contextual strands:

Nurses’ use of experiential clinical knowledge to situate practice questions in the changing

clinical care milieu of the 1950s to the 1970s; The development of an intellectual genealogy

through new educational opportunities at the baccalaureate and graduate level from the

1960s to the 1980s that provided the foundation for reintegrating practice and education;

and the creation of a growing cadre of nurse scholars and their political influence on the re-

lationship between power, knowledge, and clinical practice. These formulations are critical

for understanding how scholarship changed over time and help us understand contempo-

rary clinical practice, its authority structure, how it helps us define a body of knowledge

from which practice proceeds, and then, how it responds to public demands.

Conclusions

: Nursing scholarship is nested in a particular social, political, economic, and

cultural context. This context also determines how and why it is generated, debated, and

used. Its production does not always follow a rational, logical pattern. Nursing knowledge

development is influenced as much by the political underpinnings of health care as it is by

social, economic, cultural, and scientific foundations.

[Key words: nursing scholarship

,

20th century nursing history

,

graduate education]

J

OURNAL OF

N

URSING

S

CHOLARSHIP

, 2008; 40:1, 4–11.

C

2008 S

IGMA

T

HETA

T

AU

I

N

www.truthaboutnursing.org/press/pioneers/breckinridge.html

Greetings,

Related to history, one of the most significant occurred when Mary Breckinridge researched infant mortality in Kentucky, demonstrating reduced infant mortality rates which occurred at the beginning of her efforts of Frontier Nursing Service, which lowered the rates. She presented to data to defend nurse-midwifery, which the AMA was trying to eliminate. Her rates were lower than OBGYN rates in organized cities. This effort sustained the continued practice of nurse-midwifery in the United States, which our population benefits from, as they do indeed save lives in disparity all over the world. At the onset of nursing as a profession, Florence Nightingale was the creator of pie chart reporting of mortalities in the Crimea. I love to use pie charts on occasion, to demonstrated this and mention her, as the foundation of nursing began with research into outcomes of practice. They all were great contributions to the health and well being of those we care for.

Hi Kathryn- an interesting and relevant topic, but as you are finding it is one that can be difficult to research! much of the literature focuses on specific aspects of nursing research, its application or integration while many of the texts present a more generic overview.  One aspect you may find helpful to consider is the emerging research roles - i.e. whether nurses working as researchers in collaboration with others (usually medical practitioners) and the contribution to multi centre trials etc compared to the development of nurse researchers looking at nursing specific issues, independently.

I am listing some potential articles below that you may find interesting although not directly answering your question:

Career pathways in research: clinical research.

(PMID:11977798)

Kenkre JE, Foxcroft DR

Nursing standard (Royal College of Nursing (Great Britain) : 1987) [2001 Oct 17-23;16(5):41-4]

Nurse researcher: always a researcher, sometimes a nurse.

(PMID:15484691)

Beale B, Wilkes L

Collegian (Royal College of Nursing, Australia) [2001 Oct;8(4):33-9]

Incorporation of research into clinical practice: the development of a clinical nurse researcher position.

S Richardson

Nursing praxis in New Zealand inc, 2005 -Vol.21(1), p.33-42

Greetings

You can also check on Burns, N., Grove, S. K.,& Gray, J.

(2015). Understanding nursing research: building an evidence-based practice.

Best wishes