Supercomputers open window of opportunity for nursing

A window of opportunity was opened for nurse researchers with the High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) initiative in President Bush's 1992 fiscal-year budget. Nursing research moved into the high-performance computing environment through the University of Nevada Las Vegas/Cray Project for Nursing and Health Data Research (PNHDR). USing the CRAY YMP 2/216 supercomputer, the PNHDR established the validity of a supercomputer platform for nursing research. In addition, the research has identified a paradigm shift in statistical analysis, delineated actual and potential barriers to nursing research in a supercomputing environment, conceptualized a new branch of nursing science called Nurmetrics, and discovered new avenue for nursing research utilizing supercomputing tools.