Nurses have been conducting research at least since Florence Nightingale collected mortality statistics during the Crimean War and demonstrated that nurses could make a profound difference in whether soldiers lived or died. The century following Florence Nightingale's establishment of the first school of nursing saw the profession expand and grow. Over the past 50 years, nurses established research journals and founded the Institute of Nursing Research within the National Institutes of Health. During the latter half of the 20th century, the art and science of nursing practice has been clearly established, resulting in higher quality of care for patients.
At first, nurses received doctoral preparation in other disciplines and brought the methods and rigor of that preparation into their work of addressing nursing issues. Now, given the development of strong doctoral programs in schools of nursing, nurses are prepared within their own discipline. In this way, their preparation and resulting scholarship is clearly focused on developing the science of nursing.