Interdisciplinary research training in a school of nursing

Abstract

Although interdisciplinarity has become a favored model of scholarly inquiry, the assumption that interdisciplinary work is intuitive and can be performed without training is short-sighted. This article describes the implementation of an interdisciplinary research training program within a school of nursing. We describe the key elements of the program and the challenges we encountered. From 2007-2010, eleven trainees from 6 disciplines have been accepted into the program and 7 have completed the program; the trainees have published 12 manuscripts and presented at 10 regional or national meetings. The major challenge has been to sustain and "push the envelope" toward interdisciplinary thinking among the trainees and their mentors, and to assure that they do not revert to their "safer" disciplinary silos. This training program, funded by National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), has become well-established within the school of nursing and across the entire University campus, and is recognized as a high quality research training program across disciplines, as exemplified by excellent applicants from a number of disciplines.

Figure 1

Conceptual model for interdisciplinary research training. Source: Adapted from Peirce, Cook and Larson.

Figure 2

Sample of previous 100 “hits” of CIRAR website (as of 11/8/10), 48% U.S. and 52% international (http://www.nursing.columbia.edu/CIRAR/TIRAR.html).