Dear Editor,
Last December, while preparing a lecture about “Nursing research during COVID‐19 pandemic,” we came across a Letter to the Editor: “Modeling Marie Curie: how student nurses can contribute to evidence‐based practice during the COVID‐19 era” (Aguilera & Venkatachalam, 2020).
The enjoyable letter tells us the story of a student that faces the impossibility of attending her practical classes during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Her disappointment was replaced by the motivating discovering of her vocation for research: "My aspirations to be the next Florence Nightingale fell to the wayside, but I found resilience in modelling myself after Marie Curie" (Aguilera & Venkatachalam, 2020).
After reading the letter, some concern has arisen. Of course, we also got very excited about the student's discovery and willingness to share this with her colleagues, writing such an enjoyable letter. What stood out and made us a little bit surprised was the distinction made between Marie Curie and Florence Nightingale.
Are we overstating Florence's achievements, or do they fit perfectly with what the authors describe as research? “My fears about falling behind on learning essential skills were alleviated through the lessons learned from research: to question norms, critically analyze data, and to effectively communicate our findings to the community”(Aguilera & Venkatachalam, 2020)?
A wide variety of authors describe that Florence meticulously collected data on the causes of thousands of soldiers' deaths during the British campaign in the Crimean War, wrote extensively and comprehensively on the topic, and found a more accessible graphic way to demonstrate the statistical results to advocate her cause. Her achievements culminated in the public health reform of 1875 that saved countless and priceless lives. All of that in an extremely adverse and challenging context, especially for a woman, in the 19th century (Agnew, 1958; Dumitrascu et al., 2020; Fee et al., 2010; Kopf, 1916; Kudzma, 2006; McDonald, 2015). It seems to correspond to research and, farther away, innovation!
Florence's work is an inspiration not only for nurses but for statisticians, epidemiologists, and academics in general around the world. We thank and praise the authors for bringing us this reflection. We share with them the same admiration for Marie Curie, the passion and recognition of the importance of research in nursing practice, and the opinion that the COVID‐19 pandemic can be a turning point for nursing. Even contributing to “recognition of the potential to impact health through expanded scopes of practice in clinical, education, research, and decision‐making domains” (Rosa et al., 2020).
We take the opportunity to invite all nurses to reflect on whether or not this transformation should be about bringing research culture into nursing training and practice, making them inseparable and, finally, recognizing the importance of nursing research.
CONFLICT OF INTERESTS
The authors declare that there are no conflict of interests.
KEYWORDS
advanced practice, continuing education, graduate education, image of nursing, nursing education, professional issues
REFERENCES
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