[Research in nursing science: an analysis of research conference abstracts]

The purpose of this study is to describe the current state of research in nursing science and to compare the research done in the USA and Canada with that in other countries. The data consist of 367 research abstracts submitted for conference, which were analyzed in terms of focus, purpose and methodology. The statistical significances of differences were tested using the chi-square test. Most of the research was focused on patients and very little on nursing education or administration. The purpose was in most cases the conceptualization and description of phenomena. A fifth of the abstracts were concerned with the development and evaluation of forms of treatment or interventions, these being more often from the other countries than from the USA and Canada. The data had mostly been gathered by questionnaire, the second most frequent method being interview. Interviews were more often used in the other countries (33%) than in the USA and Canada (24%), where biophysiological measures were used equally often. Most studies were quantitative and only 15% were qualitative. Multivariate analyses were used more often in the USA and Canada than elsewhere. Most of the research analyzed here was carried out in the USA and Canada, and since the group of other countries was very heterogeneous, the results of this study cannot be generalized except in as far as they concern North America.