A team approach to nursing research

The study of the relationship of handedness to the laterality of breast cancer in women is intriguing. Results may affect facets of breast cancer diagnosis and therapy. Maybe not in same way as the discovery of the relationship of high oxygen concentrations to the development of blindness in premature infants, but the study may identify women at higher risk and provide new insights to scientists studying the pathophysiology of breast oncogenesis. It is the belief of the authors that laterality research is one of the fields that could easily lend itself to investigation by large numbers of nurses in hospitals across the country if a national organization became involved in it. If nursing is to be successful in its quest for recognition as one of the professions making a serious contribution to theory, it must mobilize its forces. Nursing, recognized as the largest single health profession in the United States, has great potential for accomplishment if the talent of every member of the profession is recognized and utilized in efforts to build up the science of nursing.