1923

In 1923, a group called the Committee for the Study of Nursing Education studied
the educational preparation of nurse teachers, administrators, and public health nurses
and the clinical experiences of nursing students. The committee issued what has
become known as the Goldmark Report, which identified many inadequacies in the
educational backgrounds of the groups studied and concluded that advanced
educational preparation was essential. As more nurses received university-based
education, studies concerning nursing studentstheir differential characteristics,
problems, and satisfactions became more numerous.

1936
Funding for independent research was all about nonexistent in the early years.
However, signaling its enduring commitment to research, the nursing honor society
Sigma Theta Tau (which became Sigma Thera Tau International in 1985) was the first
organization to fund nursing research in the United States, awarding a $600 grant to
Alice Christ Malone in 1936.

1940
During the 1940s, studies concerning nursing education continued, spurred on by
the unprecedented demand for nursing personnel that resulted from World War II. For
example, Brown (1948) reassessed nursing education in a study initiated at the request
of the National Nursing Council for War Service. The findings from the study, like those
of the Goldmark Report, revealed numerous inadequacies in nursing education. Brown
recommended that the education of nurses occur in collegiate settings. Many
subsequent research investigations concerning the functions performed by nurses,
nurses roles and attitudes, hospital environments, and nursepatient interactions
stemmed from the Brown report.

1950
A number of forces combined during the 1950s to put nursing research on a
rapidly accelerating upswing. An increase in the number of nurses with advanced
educational degrees, the establishment of a nursing research center at the Walter Reed
Army Institute of Research, an increase in the availability of funds from the government
and private foundations, and the inception of the American Nurses Foundationwhich
is devoted exclusively to the promotion of nursing researchwere forces providing
impetus to nursing research during this period.
Until the 1950s, nurse researchers had few outlets for reporting their studies to
the nursing community. The American Journal of Nursing, first published in 1900, began
on a limited basis to publish some studies in the 1930s. The increasing number of
studies being conducted during the 1950s, however, created the need for a journal in
which findings could be published; thus, Nursing Research came into being in 1952.