Nursing Research Resources & Training

Nursing Research & Sponsored Programs Office

The Research & Sponsored Programs Office is responsible for pre and post award research management.

Research Design and Statistics Unit

The Research Design and Statistics Unit (RDSU) provides consultation to nursing faculty, doctoral students and candidates, and post doctoral fellows in research design, methods, data collection, questionnaire development, statistical analyses, research software, and data management.

Faculty Research Interests

Brief descriptions of faculty research interests with links to their home pages.

PhD Student Profiles

Links to home pages for PhD students.

Postdoctoral Resources

Postdoctoral guide

Emeritus Faculty

Links to emeritus faculty home pages.

School of Nursing Research Committee

Graduate faculty recommend departmental research policy through the Research Committee.

UW Graduate School Research Committee

Representing each college of the university, the Graduate School Research Committees consist of 47 faculty members appointed by the UW-Madison Graduate School Dean.

The committee is responsible for reviewing and recommending applications for named research professorships, mid-career awards, graduate fellowships, and for the distribution to faculty of General Research Grants funded by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation [WARF] from its technology licenses and investments income. Approximately 600 research proposals are reviewed during the annual competitions.

More than half of the general research funds support graduate students appointed to research teams as research or project assistants. Such support is reserved for students making satisfactory progress on their degree programs. All research assistants must carry a full-time graduate load of 8 credits, or, as a dissertator, carry 3 credits per semester and 2 credits during summer session. Project assistants must register for a minimum of 2 graduate credits per academic year.

N798 Research Practicum for Master’s Students

The Research Practicum is designed to provide graduate education in research through direct experience. Students work side by side with faculty engaged in various phases of research. The student work and the faculty determine the nature, scope, and design of the 3 credit practicum experience. Graduate students should have completed the nursing research courses (N700 Nursing Research and N701 Interpretive Research in Health Care Settings) before enrolling. The context of the practicum is ongoing faculty research and includes experiences such as secondary data analysis, problem identification, research and hypothesis development, literature review and synthesis, study design and data collection, data analysis and interpretation, preparation of reports and presentation of findings, or program evaluation.

The Research Practicum provides faculty with the opportunity to include master's students on their research teams whose learning requirements may match the activities of ongoing projects.

N991 Seminar in Nursing Research

The Seminar in Nursing Research is a 3-credit seminar in which doctoral students must enroll at least once to examine a substantive area of nursing knowledge. The Seminar in Nursing Research provides faculty the opportunity to work with doctoral students to examine, evaluate, and synthesize the conceptual and empirical underpinnings of nursing science with an emphasis upon the faculty member’s specialty. Examples of recent seminars include: Issues in Knowledge Development, Theory and Measurement in Stress and Coping, Biological Factors Influencing Patient Mobility, Family Systems and Health and Illness Research, Issues in Patient Interviews: Current Research, and Development of Internal Working Models of Health through Guided Participation.

A newly established tradition includes the course group presenting at the twice monthly Research Colloquia series. The group presents the work they have synthesized during the semester.

Research Colloquium

The Research Colloquia are held twice per month during the academic year. The purpose of the colloquia is to share the scholarship of faculty and students. A call for presentation topics is made at the start of the Fall semester. Topics have included: an open discussion of the need for nursing implications to be included in a research article; poster and paper presentations in anticipation of regional (MNRS) national (SRCD), or international (Sigma Theta Tau) presentation; student project presentations; dissertation research; and critique of manuscripts. Faculty and PhD students are expected to attend as well as present their research. The first session of each month is devoted to work accomplished on the Institutional National Research Service Award on topics related to Patient Centered Informational Interventions.

Helen Denne Schulte Research Assistantship

The Helen Denne Schulte Committee allocates funding for graduate student research assistantships as an ongoing commitment for the support of faculty research. The intent of the funds is to support faculty research and the research training of doctoral students. If a faculty member is not serving as an advisor but has a research experience that would provide a good research learning experience for a student, a student may be matched to the project. A faculty member together with an advisee may apply. The title of Research Assistant is used for students working with their advisor so long as the work contributes to the student’s research, otherwise the Project Assistant title is used.

Research Assistants must be full time defined as 8 credits during semesters and 2 credits during summer. Priority for Project Assistant will be given to full time students.

Criteria for proposals include (a) degree to which the description of the planned research is focused; (b) degree of specificity of the goals and activities of the assistantship-- such as the skills and competencies to be learned; (c) degree to which the work relates to the faculty member’s research agenda; (d) degree to which the research experience will benefit the student’s research training; and (e) likelihood that goals and activities can be attained within the budget and time proposed. Applications are accepted one time per year in the Spring semester.

Center for Patient-Centered Interventions (CPCI)

The Center for Patient-Centered Interventions (CPCI) supports interdisciplinary research related to the design and testing of health-promoting, patient-centered interventions. Patient-centered interventions are customized or tailored to an individual’s attitudes, beliefs, and daily actions—the characteristics that define an individual’s quality of life. Addressing these aspects is key to managing disease, treating illness, or coaching health goals throughout life. CPCI has a number of research opportunities for both pre and post doctoral students and faculty. Click here for more info.

University of Wisconsin-Madison Clinical Investigator Preparatory Program (CIPP)

A didactic curriculum and support services created to develop investigators who will lead successful research programs. The CIPP provides two years of coursework linked to research and mentoring to give physicians, post-graduate trainees, and other health professionals knowledge and skills to apply to clinical research.

Physical Resources

Simonds Center

Wet Labs

Computer Resources for Graduate Students

Health Sciences Learning Center