Research in Nursing in Critical Care 1995-2009: a cause for celebration

The purpose of this article is to analyse the research papers published in Nursing in Critical Care (n = 168) over the past 15 years to examine trends in methodology, theoretical contribution and authorship.

Research is a contested term and the paper starts with defining the criteria by which papers were selected for the review.

The approach undertaken was a documentary review based on an adaptation of Schatzman's dimensional analysis. Papers were loaded into a matrix then categorized and grouped to determine trends and frequency.

Research papers published in the journal reflect a wide range of interests and broad spread of research methods. Qualitative and quantitative data are used by authors but to distinguish papers into these two categories would be over simplistic. Systematic reviews along with randomized control trials and studies using a quasi-experimental design are the least frequently occurring approaches in the published papers, although they are growing in number in recent years. All the papers make explicit the implications for clinical practice and as such contribute to the growing body of knowledge to inform critical care nursing practice.