Dr. Kalisch Receives Prestigious National Nurse Researcher Award

“My work comes out of spending a lot time with nurses. It’s rewarding that it resonates with so many people, nurses and managers alike.”

This year’s American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) Nurse Researcher Award honors University of Michigan School of Nursing (UMSN) Shirley Titus Distinguished Professor of Nursing Beatrice J. Kalisch, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, for her substantial body of research dedicated to improving nursing care.

The annual award “recognizes a nurse researcher who has made a significant contribution to nursing research and is recognized by the broader nursing community as an outstanding nurse researcher.” Recipients are vetted through the AONE Foundation Research Committee and then approved by the AONE Foundation Board.  

“The Research Committee reviewed the work of several well-known researchers who had been nominated for this prestigious recognition,” says Donna Sullivan Havens, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, chair of AONE Foundation Research Committee. “After careful review and thoughtful conversations by the committee, Dr. Kalisch was selected to receive the award this year for her important contributions to knowledge that have been consistent over time and well disseminated to inform nursing practice and patient care.”

Dr. Kalisch began researching missed care occurrences nearly a decade ago, after being asked to serve as a consultant to many hospitals. “I became interested in identifying the challenges that staff nurses have,” she says.

Dr. Kalisch’s research in this area focuses on errors of omission such as missed feedings, patient teaching, hygiene, and lack of ambulation. She discovered several reoccurring reasons for the missed care, including staffing issues, poor teamwork, ineffective leadership, and lack of materials. Her research, which includes nearly 2 dozen studies, has moved from discovery to intervention in order to find ways to decrease the number of missed care incidents.

“It’s not about making nurses look bad,” says Dr. Kalisch. “Nurses thank me for doing this research. It affects their well-being as well as the patients’ well-being. One aspect of my research is nursing satisfaction and I’ve found it’s much higher when there’s less missed care.”

Dr. Kalisch says the award is an honor and “it’s recognition that I hit on something that is very important to real world nursing.”

Dr. Kalisch presented her latest research at the AONE Foundation lecture during the organization’s annual meeting on March 23, where she was also presented with the award.