585626
research-article2015
NSQXXX10.1177/0894318415585626Nursing Science QuarterlyFlorczak / Research Issues
Research Issues
Freedom in Research: The Situation
Nursing Science Quarterly 2015, Vol. 28(3) 188–191 © The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0894318415585626 nsq.sagepub.com
Kristine L. Florczak, RN; PhD1
Abstract To illuminate the idea of freedom in research, the author considers the nature of being a professional, which includes the dimensions as elaborated by Flexner (1915) and Taylor (1968). The dimension of autonomy, one characteristic of being a professional, is explored by utilizing the work of Hall (1968). Then the idea of situated freedom will be presented as a means to explain the professional autonomy of nurse researchers. Keywords autonomy in research, professional, situated freedom Since the focus of this issue of the journal is freedom, the topic of this column is freedom in research which to this author’s mind brings forth a conundrum. The conundrum lies in the decision of which path to travel in relation to conducting research – either at a major research institution or in a teaching environment. Before we begin this weighty debate, it behooves us to examine the nature of freedom particularly as part of being a professional. Therefore, the nature of being a professional is discussed followed by a more detailed look at the dimensions of professional autonomy. From this viewpoint, the idea of situated freedom is explored and finally, the consequences of choosing exactly where to conduct research is illuminated. The concept of being a professional is elusive and many sociologists have attempted to describe the characteristics of this phenomenon. According to Styles (1982), the professions arose from the secularization of the social responsibilities belonging to the church which included the “basic needs for health, social order, and understanding” (p. 17). This secularization was mostly complete by the 16th century. She also stated that “during the nineteenth century, the churchuniversity lineage was joined with the guild line of surgeons and apothecaries, the common lawyers, and notaries to provide the antecedents of the modern professional” (Styles, 1982, p. 17). Thus, the professions of medicine, law, and religion were born. However, the actual description of being a professional was not entertained until the Flexner (1910) report that concerned itself with the state of medicine at the turn of the century. Flexner (1915) clearly delineated the attributes of being a professional in his presentation to the National Conference of Charities and Corrections entitled “Is Social Work a Profession?” In his opinion, the first characteristic of being professional is that the activities are clearly intellectual. This does not mean that using tools or one’s hands is excluded but that thinking through complex problems is the
essential activity and the tools are just incidental. In addition to the intellectual activity, the professional is entirely responsible and personally at risk for the consequences of his decisions. “He is not under orders; though he be cooperating with others, though the work be team work rather than individual work, his responsibility is not less complete and not less personal” (Flexner, 1915, p. 154). Furthermore, Flexner believed that the professional needs a steady stream of new ideas derived from science to keep the activities from degenerating into routine. Additionally, the point was made that the intellectual activities, responsibility, and acquisition of new knowledge, which are all part and parcel of being a profession and professional, should culminate in some practical end. Flexner (1915) stated “no profession can be merely academic and theoretic; the professional man must have an absolutely definite and practical object. His processes are essentially intellectual; his raw material is derived from the world of learning; therefore he must do with it a clean-cut, concrete task” (p. 155). Additionally, the profession must dictate qualifications required for enter into the brotherhood and must agree on the content and quality of the training necessary to join the ranks. Finally, at the core, a professional should be altruistic meaning that the well-being of society should be at the forefront and he should not be driven by personal wealth. Following Flexner’s description of what it means to be a professional, many other sociologists clarified or added dimensions to the phenomenon. For the sake of argument, one other description of being a professional is of importance to the discussion at hand, the work of Taylor (1968). 1
Associate Professor, Saint Xavier University
Contributing Editor: Kristine L. Florczak, RN, PhD, Associate Professor, Saint Xavier University, 7807 Janes Avenue, Woodridge, Illinois, 60517. Email: [email protected]
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Florczak / Research Issues Taylor (1968) wrote of the professional environment in terms of expertise, autonomy, commitment, and responsibility. He spoke of the expertise of being a professional in terms of the fact that one must acquire an advanced body of knowledge and skills through arduous academic work or training. Furthermore, to maintain this level of expertise, structures for training are created and there are norms for inclusion and exclusion to enter the structure and move towards becoming a member of the profession. Taylor deemed autonomy to mean that the professional was free to make his own decisions which caused some conflict when the professional was part of a bureaucracy or in a place where unions exist. He proposed that when professionals were part of a bureaucracy they could exist on a continuum whereby they ranged from being totally separate from the bureaucracy to being greatly integrated with it. The example he gave was that of research scientists who are employed by organizations and those of some engineers and nurses who are unionized. It was implied that research scientists have more of a measure of autonomy than the nurses or engineers who belong to unions. In either case, Taylor believed that although professionalism in bureaucracies and unions was invaded, it was not destroyed. “In all, the professionalization is a viable occupational environment with power to forge much of its ultimate image. In other cases its power may be less, but sufficient to force negotiation” (Taylor, 1968, p. 116). Commitment was characterized by Taylor in terms of the profession itself as being altruistic. In other words, the discipline to which the professional belongs is motivated by service to others instead of being primarily concerned with making a profit. Furthermore, the professional, although interested in making a living, is more concerned about adding to the knowledge base of the discipline and earning the esteem of colleagues. In the end, Commitment is more than just what the professional can get out of it. Responsibility in terms of being a professional was defined by Taylor (1968) as having control over “practitioners, self-discipline, codes of ethics, and authority” (p. 123). As far as authority, it was narrowly defined in relation to having control over deciding what belonged in a particular body of knowledge not whether clients were obliged to follow advice of the professional. Codes of ethics for professionals spell out both the rights of the practitioner and the rights of the client. The idea of practitioners and self-discipline appeared to be related to the freedom to choose hours of work. This means that the professional may at times work for weeks on end with little respite and at other times enjoy a period of being less than occupied. Thus, the definition of being a professional by both Flexner (1910) and Taylor (1968) are congruous. Being a professional is mostly an intellectual endeavor which requires some measure of training and acquisition of knowledge. The training and knowledge are used in the practice of a craft for the good of society and done in an autonomous manner the outcomes of which are the responsibility of the professional. Using the aforementioned characteristics of a professional, one can easily see that being a nurse researcher is
being a professional. Conducting nursing research is mostly an intellectual endeavor since it involves thinking about problems and finding solutions to add to the body of knowledge of the discipline that informs the profession. Designing and carrying out nursing studies involves a period of training in the dimensions of research including the dimensions of ethics, methodology, interpretation, and dissemination in order to produce credible work. Nursing and nursing research is motivated by concern for humanity and the results are the responsibility of the nurse researcher. The crux of the matter, which is the focus of this column, concerns whether a nurse researcher is autonomous. Therefore, the nature of autonomy for a professional should be explored to a greater extent and to that end the work of Hall (1968) will be considered. Hall (1968) conducted research on the structural and attitudinal aspect of professionalization in organizations. His structural characteristics of being a professional including that it encompasses having a full time occupation, training schools, professional associations, and a code of ethics is congruent with the conceptualizations of Flexner (1910) and Taylor (1968). He also delineated attitudinal aspects that include the use of professional organizations as a source of new ideas, service to the public, being self-regulated, and having a sense of dedication. These aspects are also in agreement with other definitions of being a professional. More poignant are his thoughts on autonomy. Hall believed that the autonomous nature of the professional could be included under both structural and attitudinal aspects. The structural nature of autonomy had to do with excluding the unqualified from the profession and denying the legal right to practice. Furthermore, structural autonomy is the right to make decisions about the concerns of the discipline and that only other professionals have the ability to question the decisions. The attitudinal component of autonomy “involves the feeling that the practitioner ought to be able to make his own decisions without external pressures from clients, those who are not members of his profession, or from the employing organization” (Hall. 1968, p. 93). From this perspective of professional autonomy, the question becomes whether or not nurse researchers are free to decide exactly what phenomena should be studied. It is the opinion of this author that freedom exists for nurse researchers but that it is situated. Therefore, in order to more fully explain, the concept of situated freedom must be explored
Situated Freedom To begin our discourse on situated freedom, one must understand the dialectic from which it arose. There are two diametrically opposed views on freedom. One proposes that we are absolutely free and the other is that we are ultimately a product of determined events. Sartre was a proponent that one is absolutely free since one’s consciousness is able to choose what it wants to be. In other words, consciousness is able to redefine the future since it can break from the past and thus it
Downloaded from nsq.sagepub.com at University of Sydney on November 14, 2015
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Nursing Science Quarterly 28(3)
is free (Franchi, n.d.). The exact opposite is the stance that determinism takes which is that there is a linear cause and effect. From this linear notion, arises the idea that “the future is anything but shapeless and ambiguous; it has been determined by the past….the decision is bound by the history of previous events and the decision is not free but rather determined” (Ploifroni, 1999, p. 197). Situated freedom is a stance that lies somewhere between absolute freedom and total determination. As Parse (1998) explained, a person is born into the world which is their facticity. From that point, one chooses and those choices then are givens. “The givens in situations, then, are present from earlier choosings, from the human’s facticity, and the emergent possibilities are cocreated with these givens” (Parse, 1998). Thus, one is free to choose meaning in the present from the standpoint of one’s facticity and earlier choosings. Keep in mind that the meaning of these choosings changes over time as they are woven and rewoven into the fabric of one’s life. One is free but only to the extent of being situated. As Polifroni (1999) stated, “the person, the human being, is situated (grounded) in a phenomenon and chooses to act in a specific way colored by the events s/he chooses to include in the decision-making process” (p. 200). Thus, the idea of professional autonomy and the idea of freedom in research are situated.
Situated Freedom in Research First, it must be assumed that choosing the type of institution in which one will conduct research becomes a given from which to decide what phenomena will be studied. If a nurse researcher chooses to accept a faculty position at a major research institution, it will be incumbent that she or he works toward obtaining an RO1 research grant as part of the tenure process. An RO1 is a very prestigious grant offered to support health-related research and development. It “is an award made to support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project by the named investigator(s) in an area representing the investigator’s specific interest and competencies, based on the mission of the NIH” (National Institutes of Health, 2012, p. 1). For example, one interest of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and funded by the National Institute on Aging is underactive bladder in the older adult for which the following description was provided: This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites applications that propose basic, clinical, or translational research on underactive bladder (UAB) and its consequences in aging and in older persons. Applications should focus on the 1) biology, etiology and pathophysiology of UAB in animal models and/or older adults; 2) translation of basic/clinical research into clinical practice and health decision-making; 3) diagnosis, prevention, management and clinical outcomes of UAB in older adults; and/or 4) epidemiology and risk factors for the development of UAB with advancing age. Research supported by this initiative should enhance knowledge of UAB and its consequences in older adults and provide evidence-based
guidance in the diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of UAB in older persons (National Institute of Health, 2014, p.1).
Another RO1 opportunity funded by the National Institutes of Nursing Research concerns itself with maternal nutrition and pre-pregnancy obesity. The description for this grant was This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages applications to improve health outcomes for women, infants and children, by stimulating interdisciplinary research focused on maternal nutrition and pre-pregnancy obesity. Maternal health significantly impacts not only the mother but also the intrauterine environment, and subsequently fetal development and the health of the newborn (National Institute of Health, 2014, p.1).
These are but two of the grant offerings from the NIH. To be awarded an RO1 grant brings with it esteem from one’s colleagues, usually a substantial amount of money, and provides solid evidence for a faculty member’s dossier in their bid for tenure. Usually, research institutions provide faculty, who are developing projects in hopes of securing an RO1, reduced teaching loads and other supports to assist them in the venture. The caveat is that the nurse researcher will have less autonomy to choose what phenomenon to study, since it is dictated by an external funding source, the NIH. If a nurse researcher chooses to become a faculty member at a teaching institution, she or he would have the option to conduct a study on a subject of personal interest. For example, the nature of loss in order to understand the lived experience of losing a partner may be of interest. She or he may apply for smaller grants from funding agencies such Sigma Theta Tau International. One opportunity for funding from this organization is related to care at the end of life and is funded by both Sigma Theta Tau International/Hospice and Palliative Nurses Foundation End of Life Nursing Care (Sigma Theta Tau International, 2015). However, the funding is substantially less than an RO1 and the awarding of the grant does not carry the same esteem in the eyes of fellow researchers. Obtaining such a grant may stand as evidence for tenure at a smaller university or college but would not be sufficient for a major research institution. Furthermore, most of the research would be unsupported by the institution since its focus is teaching. In effect, it means that the nurse researcher would be expected to continue with a full teaching load and fulfill all the obligations of committee work. Thus, choosing to follow one’s heart’s desire may preclude one’s ability to procure funds and may reduce accolades by fellow researchers. Thus, in both instances the autonomy or freedom of the researcher can be defined as situated when it pertains to choosing a phenomenon for study since being in an institution is a choosing that becomes a given. At a major research institution the choice of a research phenomenon will be narrowly circumscribed but the researcher will have more research support, while at a teaching institution the researcher will be able to follow a heart’s desire but have less assistance. There is freedom in the choice of which phenomenon to study but it is situated.
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Florczak / Research Issues Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
References Flexner, A. (1910). Medical education in the United States and Canada. (A report to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching). Boston: The Merrymount Press. Flexner, A. (1915/2001). Is social work a profession? Research on Social Work Practice,11(2), 152-165. Franchi, L. (n. d.) Sartre and freedom. Retrieved from http://files. lfranchi.com/papers/sartre.and.freedom.pdf Hall, R, H. (1968). Professionalization and bureaucratization. American Sociological Review, 33(1), 92-104. National Institutes of Health Office of Extramural Research. (2012). NIH research project grant program (RO1), Retrieved from http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/r01.htm
National Institutes of Health Office of Extramural Research (2014). Grants and funding, Retrieved from http://grants.nih.gov/ searchGuide/Search_Guide_Results.cfm?start=1&Activity_ Code=&Expdate_On_After=&OrderOn=RelDate&Order Direction=DESC&NoticesToo=0&OpeningDate_On_ After=&Parent_FOA=All&PrimaryICActive=Any&Rel Date_On_After=&Status=1&SearchTerms=&PAsToo=1&R FAsToo=0&TitleText=&AppPackage=Any&Activity_Code_ Groups=&Include_Sponsoring=0 Parse, R. R. (1998). The human becoming school of thought A perspective for nurses and other health professionals. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE. Polifroni, E. C. (1999). Free will or determinism, In E. Carol Ploifroni, & M. Welch (Eds.), Perspectives on philosophy of science in nursing (pp. 197-201). Philadelphia: Lippincott. Sigma Theta Tau International (2014). Nursing research grants. Retrieved from http://www.nursingsociety.org/Research/ Grants/Pages/grantsbydate.aspx Styles, M. M. (1982). On nursing Toward a new endowment. St. Louis: The C. V. Mosby Company. Taylor, L. (1968). Occupational sociology. New York: Oxford University Press.
Downloaded from nsq.sagepub.com at University of Sydney on November 14, 2015
research-article2015
NSQXXX10.1177/0894318415585626Nursing Science QuarterlyFlorczak / Research Issues
Research Issues
Freedom in Research: The Situation
Nursing Science Quarterly 2015, Vol. 28(3) 188–191 © The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0894318415585626 nsq.sagepub.com
Kristine L. Florczak, RN; PhD1
Abstract To illuminate the idea of freedom in research, the author considers the nature of being a professional, which includes the dimensions as elaborated by Flexner (1915) and Taylor (1968). The dimension of autonomy, one characteristic of being a professional, is explored by utilizing the work of Hall (1968). Then the idea of situated freedom will be presented as a means to explain the professional autonomy of nurse researchers. Keywords autonomy in research, professional, situated freedom Since the focus of this issue of the journal is freedom, the topic of this column is freedom in research which to this author’s mind brings forth a conundrum. The conundrum lies in the decision of which path to travel in relation to conducting research – either at a major research institution or in a teaching environment. Before we begin this weighty debate, it behooves us to examine the nature of freedom particularly as part of being a professional. Therefore, the nature of being a professional is discussed followed by a more detailed look at the dimensions of professional autonomy. From this viewpoint, the idea of situated freedom is explored and finally, the consequences of choosing exactly where to conduct research is illuminated. The concept of being a professional is elusive and many sociologists have attempted to describe the characteristics of this phenomenon. According to Styles (1982), the professions arose from the secularization of the social responsibilities belonging to the church which included the “basic needs for health, social order, and understanding” (p. 17). This secularization was mostly complete by the 16th century. She also stated that “during the nineteenth century, the churchuniversity lineage was joined with the guild line of surgeons and apothecaries, the common lawyers, and notaries to provide the antecedents of the modern professional” (Styles, 1982, p. 17). Thus, the professions of medicine, law, and religion were born. However, the actual description of being a professional was not entertained until the Flexner (1910) report that concerned itself with the state of medicine at the turn of the century. Flexner (1915) clearly delineated the attributes of being a professional in his presentation to the National Conference of Charities and Corrections entitled “Is Social Work a Profession?” In his opinion, the first characteristic of being professional is that the activities are clearly intellectual. This does not mean that using tools or one’s hands is excluded but that thinking through complex problems is the
essential activity and the tools are just incidental. In addition to the intellectual activity, the professional is entirely responsible and personally at risk for the consequences of his decisions. “He is not under orders; though he be cooperating with others, though the work be team work rather than individual work, his responsibility is not less complete and not less personal” (Flexner, 1915, p. 154). Furthermore, Flexner believed that the professional needs a steady stream of new ideas derived from science to keep the activities from degenerating into routine. Additionally, the point was made that the intellectual activities, responsibility, and acquisition of new knowledge, which are all part and parcel of being a profession and professional, should culminate in some practical end. Flexner (1915) stated “no profession can be merely academic and theoretic; the professional man must have an absolutely definite and practical object. His processes are essentially intellectual; his raw material is derived from the world of learning; therefore he must do with it a clean-cut, concrete task” (p. 155). Additionally, the profession must dictate qualifications required for enter into the brotherhood and must agree on the content and quality of the training necessary to join the ranks. Finally, at the core, a professional should be altruistic meaning that the well-being of society should be at the forefront and he should not be driven by personal wealth. Following Flexner’s description of what it means to be a professional, many other sociologists clarified or added dimensions to the phenomenon. For the sake of argument, one other description of being a professional is of importance to the discussion at hand, the work of Taylor (1968). 1
Associate Professor, Saint Xavier University
Contributing Editor: Kristine L. Florczak, RN, PhD, Associate Professor, Saint Xavier University, 7807 Janes Avenue, Woodridge, Illinois, 60517. Email: [email protected]
Downloaded from nsq.sagepub.com at University of Sydney on November 14, 2015
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Florczak / Research Issues Taylor (1968) wrote of the professional environment in terms of expertise, autonomy, commitment, and responsibility. He spoke of the expertise of being a professional in terms of the fact that one must acquire an advanced body of knowledge and skills through arduous academic work or training. Furthermore, to maintain this level of expertise, structures for training are created and there are norms for inclusion and exclusion to enter the structure and move towards becoming a member of the profession. Taylor deemed autonomy to mean that the professional was free to make his own decisions which caused some conflict when the professional was part of a bureaucracy or in a place where unions exist. He proposed that when professionals were part of a bureaucracy they could exist on a continuum whereby they ranged from being totally separate from the bureaucracy to being greatly integrated with it. The example he gave was that of research scientists who are employed by organizations and those of some engineers and nurses who are unionized. It was implied that research scientists have more of a measure of autonomy than the nurses or engineers who belong to unions. In either case, Taylor believed that although professionalism in bureaucracies and unions was invaded, it was not destroyed. “In all, the professionalization is a viable occupational environment with power to forge much of its ultimate image. In other cases its power may be less, but sufficient to force negotiation” (Taylor, 1968, p. 116). Commitment was characterized by Taylor in terms of the profession itself as being altruistic. In other words, the discipline to which the professional belongs is motivated by service to others instead of being primarily concerned with making a profit. Furthermore, the professional, although interested in making a living, is more concerned about adding to the knowledge base of the discipline and earning the esteem of colleagues. In the end, Commitment is more than just what the professional can get out of it. Responsibility in terms of being a professional was defined by Taylor (1968) as having control over “practitioners, self-discipline, codes of ethics, and authority” (p. 123). As far as authority, it was narrowly defined in relation to having control over deciding what belonged in a particular body of knowledge not whether clients were obliged to follow advice of the professional. Codes of ethics for professionals spell out both the rights of the practitioner and the rights of the client. The idea of practitioners and self-discipline appeared to be related to the freedom to choose hours of work. This means that the professional may at times work for weeks on end with little respite and at other times enjoy a period of being less than occupied. Thus, the definition of being a professional by both Flexner (1910) and Taylor (1968) are congruous. Being a professional is mostly an intellectual endeavor which requires some measure of training and acquisition of knowledge. The training and knowledge are used in the practice of a craft for the good of society and done in an autonomous manner the outcomes of which are the responsibility of the professional. Using the aforementioned characteristics of a professional, one can easily see that being a nurse researcher is
being a professional. Conducting nursing research is mostly an intellectual endeavor since it involves thinking about problems and finding solutions to add to the body of knowledge of the discipline that informs the profession. Designing and carrying out nursing studies involves a period of training in the dimensions of research including the dimensions of ethics, methodology, interpretation, and dissemination in order to produce credible work. Nursing and nursing research is motivated by concern for humanity and the results are the responsibility of the nurse researcher. The crux of the matter, which is the focus of this column, concerns whether a nurse researcher is autonomous. Therefore, the nature of autonomy for a professional should be explored to a greater extent and to that end the work of Hall (1968) will be considered. Hall (1968) conducted research on the structural and attitudinal aspect of professionalization in organizations. His structural characteristics of being a professional including that it encompasses having a full time occupation, training schools, professional associations, and a code of ethics is congruent with the conceptualizations of Flexner (1910) and Taylor (1968). He also delineated attitudinal aspects that include the use of professional organizations as a source of new ideas, service to the public, being self-regulated, and having a sense of dedication. These aspects are also in agreement with other definitions of being a professional. More poignant are his thoughts on autonomy. Hall believed that the autonomous nature of the professional could be included under both structural and attitudinal aspects. The structural nature of autonomy had to do with excluding the unqualified from the profession and denying the legal right to practice. Furthermore, structural autonomy is the right to make decisions about the concerns of the discipline and that only other professionals have the ability to question the decisions. The attitudinal component of autonomy “involves the feeling that the practitioner ought to be able to make his own decisions without external pressures from clients, those who are not members of his profession, or from the employing organization” (Hall. 1968, p. 93). From this perspective of professional autonomy, the question becomes whether or not nurse researchers are free to decide exactly what phenomena should be studied. It is the opinion of this author that freedom exists for nurse researchers but that it is situated. Therefore, in order to more fully explain, the concept of situated freedom must be explored
Situated Freedom To begin our discourse on situated freedom, one must understand the dialectic from which it arose. There are two diametrically opposed views on freedom. One proposes that we are absolutely free and the other is that we are ultimately a product of determined events. Sartre was a proponent that one is absolutely free since one’s consciousness is able to choose what it wants to be. In other words, consciousness is able to redefine the future since it can break from the past and thus it
Downloaded from nsq.sagepub.com at University of Sydney on November 14, 2015
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Nursing Science Quarterly 28(3)
is free (Franchi, n.d.). The exact opposite is the stance that determinism takes which is that there is a linear cause and effect. From this linear notion, arises the idea that “the future is anything but shapeless and ambiguous; it has been determined by the past….the decision is bound by the history of previous events and the decision is not free but rather determined” (Ploifroni, 1999, p. 197). Situated freedom is a stance that lies somewhere between absolute freedom and total determination. As Parse (1998) explained, a person is born into the world which is their facticity. From that point, one chooses and those choices then are givens. “The givens in situations, then, are present from earlier choosings, from the human’s facticity, and the emergent possibilities are cocreated with these givens” (Parse, 1998). Thus, one is free to choose meaning in the present from the standpoint of one’s facticity and earlier choosings. Keep in mind that the meaning of these choosings changes over time as they are woven and rewoven into the fabric of one’s life. One is free but only to the extent of being situated. As Polifroni (1999) stated, “the person, the human being, is situated (grounded) in a phenomenon and chooses to act in a specific way colored by the events s/he chooses to include in the decision-making process” (p. 200). Thus, the idea of professional autonomy and the idea of freedom in research are situated.
Situated Freedom in Research First, it must be assumed that choosing the type of institution in which one will conduct research becomes a given from which to decide what phenomena will be studied. If a nurse researcher chooses to accept a faculty position at a major research institution, it will be incumbent that she or he works toward obtaining an RO1 research grant as part of the tenure process. An RO1 is a very prestigious grant offered to support health-related research and development. It “is an award made to support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project by the named investigator(s) in an area representing the investigator’s specific interest and competencies, based on the mission of the NIH” (National Institutes of Health, 2012, p. 1). For example, one interest of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and funded by the National Institute on Aging is underactive bladder in the older adult for which the following description was provided: This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites applications that propose basic, clinical, or translational research on underactive bladder (UAB) and its consequences in aging and in older persons. Applications should focus on the 1) biology, etiology and pathophysiology of UAB in animal models and/or older adults; 2) translation of basic/clinical research into clinical practice and health decision-making; 3) diagnosis, prevention, management and clinical outcomes of UAB in older adults; and/or 4) epidemiology and risk factors for the development of UAB with advancing age. Research supported by this initiative should enhance knowledge of UAB and its consequences in older adults and provide evidence-based
guidance in the diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of UAB in older persons (National Institute of Health, 2014, p.1).
Another RO1 opportunity funded by the National Institutes of Nursing Research concerns itself with maternal nutrition and pre-pregnancy obesity. The description for this grant was This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages applications to improve health outcomes for women, infants and children, by stimulating interdisciplinary research focused on maternal nutrition and pre-pregnancy obesity. Maternal health significantly impacts not only the mother but also the intrauterine environment, and subsequently fetal development and the health of the newborn (National Institute of Health, 2014, p.1).
These are but two of the grant offerings from the NIH. To be awarded an RO1 grant brings with it esteem from one’s colleagues, usually a substantial amount of money, and provides solid evidence for a faculty member’s dossier in their bid for tenure. Usually, research institutions provide faculty, who are developing projects in hopes of securing an RO1, reduced teaching loads and other supports to assist them in the venture. The caveat is that the nurse researcher will have less autonomy to choose what phenomenon to study, since it is dictated by an external funding source, the NIH. If a nurse researcher chooses to become a faculty member at a teaching institution, she or he would have the option to conduct a study on a subject of personal interest. For example, the nature of loss in order to understand the lived experience of losing a partner may be of interest. She or he may apply for smaller grants from funding agencies such Sigma Theta Tau International. One opportunity for funding from this organization is related to care at the end of life and is funded by both Sigma Theta Tau International/Hospice and Palliative Nurses Foundation End of Life Nursing Care (Sigma Theta Tau International, 2015). However, the funding is substantially less than an RO1 and the awarding of the grant does not carry the same esteem in the eyes of fellow researchers. Obtaining such a grant may stand as evidence for tenure at a smaller university or college but would not be sufficient for a major research institution. Furthermore, most of the research would be unsupported by the institution since its focus is teaching. In effect, it means that the nurse researcher would be expected to continue with a full teaching load and fulfill all the obligations of committee work. Thus, choosing to follow one’s heart’s desire may preclude one’s ability to procure funds and may reduce accolades by fellow researchers. Thus, in both instances the autonomy or freedom of the researcher can be defined as situated when it pertains to choosing a phenomenon for study since being in an institution is a choosing that becomes a given. At a major research institution the choice of a research phenomenon will be narrowly circumscribed but the researcher will have more research support, while at a teaching institution the researcher will be able to follow a heart’s desire but have less assistance. There is freedom in the choice of which phenomenon to study but it is situated.
Downloaded from nsq.sagepub.com at University of Sydney on November 14, 2015
191
Florczak / Research Issues Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
References Flexner, A. (1910). Medical education in the United States and Canada. (A report to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching). Boston: The Merrymount Press. Flexner, A. (1915/2001). Is social work a profession? Research on Social Work Practice,11(2), 152-165. Franchi, L. (n. d.) Sartre and freedom. Retrieved from http://files. lfranchi.com/papers/sartre.and.freedom.pdf Hall, R, H. (1968). Professionalization and bureaucratization. American Sociological Review, 33(1), 92-104. National Institutes of Health Office of Extramural Research. (2012). NIH research project grant program (RO1), Retrieved from http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/r01.htm
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