PhD student earns first-place honors at international conference

University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Nursing student Tracey Dick, MSN, RN, CNE, won first place for her poster presentation “The Value of Nursing Care: A Concept Analysis” at the 2016 International Nursing Administration Research Conference (INARC) in Orlando.

The purpose of Dick’s concept analysis was to better define value in the context of nursing care.

“Health care delivery and reimbursement models are focused on value as a product of quality and cost,” Dick said. “Nursing care provides tangible and intangible contributions to patient and organizational outcomes. The nursing profession must be able to proactively and effectively communicate the value of nursing.”

Dick Tracey headshotTracey DickDick used a dimensional analysis method as the guide for the project, and the perspectives of those considered in the analysis included direct care nurses, patients and/or families, health care administrators, third-party payers and nurse researchers. Dimensions identified by the concept analysis included economic, relational and societal.

Dick concluded that direct care nurses experience the relational and societal dimensions of value of nursing care, patients and/or families experience the relational dimension, and health care administrators, third-party payers and nurse researchers interpret value from the economic dimension.

“Future nursing research should better quantify the economic value of nursing care,” Dick said. “Qualitative research which focuses on how patients and families experience the value of nursing care would also contribute to further refinement of this concept.”

INARC is put on every other year by the Council on Graduate Education for Administration in Nursing (CGEAN).

Dick appreciated the opportunity to represent the UAB School of Nursing at CGEAN.

“This was an absolutely phenomenal conference,” Dick said. “There were abundant opportunities for networking and receiving feedback on my dissertation focus. The conference provided opportunities to learn from leading nurse researchers, administrators and educators.

“It was a great experience to travel with faculty members from the UAB School of Nursing who are all clearly committed to the success of students enrolled in the PhD program. The poster presentation was a direct result of the extraordinary mentorship I receive through this program.”

For more information about the School’s PhD program, please click here.

Upcoming Events