CONHI Nursing Education Research Initiative (NERI)

Monday, May 16, 2022

In 2020, the UTA College of Nursing and Health Innovation launched the Nursing Education Research Initiative (NERI). NERI was spearheaded by Associate Professor Daisha Cipher, with the support of Dean Elizabeth Merwin. NERI project grants support the research of CONHI faculty interested in nursing education research and offer them the opportunity to take the science of nursing and health education to a greater, more advanced level. NERI also brings faculty together and provides an opportunity for them to further promote evidence-based teaching.

“The most rewarding part of the founding of this initiative, to me personally, has been to see faculty of differing professional backgrounds work together as research teams. This initiative has been a valuable vehicle for our clinical faculty to get involved with research and to participate in these important deliverables, and in the process, to move the science of nursing education forward,” shared Dr. Cipher.

CONHI established this program to support full-time faculty whose research targets educational challenges that are highly relevant to the College’s learners and educators. Some examples of research conducted under the NERI pilot project include predictors of job satisfaction and turnover ideation among new graduates, testing of educational innovations that have the potential to improve competency, improvements in the measurements of clinical competence, and much more.

The initiative has had great success within the College, with three funded projects and over 10 peer-reviewed published abstracts and manuscripts, with more scientific projects pending that include external local and national grant proposals.

The third funding cycle of NERI (2022-2023) brings an exciting partnership with the College of Nursing and Health Innovation’s Center for Rural Health and Nursing. The NERI program will fund proposals that involve scientific investigations of nursing education pertaining to underserved rural communities in Texas. Examples of research include surveys of preceptors in rural communities to identify their experiences and needs, factors associated with persistence among CONHI students residing in rural communities, profiles of CONHI alumni that practice in underserved rural areas, as well as factors associated with rural CONHI graduates remaining in their home communities.