Research overview

Many nursing professionals serve in direct care roles; however, to advance nursing practice, shape health policy and improve the health of people, rigorous scientific inquiry is needed. Research at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis is the engine that drives new solutions that put individuals, as well as families and communities, at the center of care.

Nursing research can be traced back to Florence Nightingale in the 1850s, when the goal of data collection was to improve outcomes and care. In order to expand the scope of impact and increase the ability to transform and account for different perspectives, the nursing science research program at the School of Nursing includes nurses, advanced-practice nurses and scientists from several other disciplines.

Nursing science is a holistic approach to health and health care research. The problems that nursing science can solve are not the challenges of nurses alone. They belong to multiple disciplines, many of which are reflected in School of Nursing faculty, the Nursing Science and Health-Care Leadership Graduate Group and doctoral students.

The research interests and expertise of School of Nursing professors are diverse and involve robust faculty collaborations across UC Davis and beyond, as well as ongoing community-based partnerships. Current research includes projects focused on family caregiving across the illness trajectory, healthy aging, leveraging technology to support health, reducing health disparities in underserved populations, new models of care for serious illness and interventions to improve health.