Engendering change: empowering nurse academics to take part in a university research culture

Any school of nursing, which is building upon a college-based teaching culture to create and maintain a viable research culture within a university, must build from within its own resources. This paper outlines a strategic approach to create a research culture in one such school. We describe the empowerment philosophy based on critical and feminist approaches that underpinned our strategy in transforming what was a teaching based college of advanced education culture to that of a university in which both research and teaching are required of its staff. A climate to facilitate change was created and a research support structure was put in place. The success of the strategies can be assessed by the increased participation in research activities, enhanced productivity and evidence of increasing confidence of staff.