Nursing Data and Research Consortium (NDRC)

Priorities | Partners | Impacts

July 7, 2026

Despite the central role that nursing plays in delivering care, research on strengthening the nursing workforce and optimizing nursing practice to promote Veteran health has remained underdeveloped in VHA. To build evidence on nursing, HSR’s Nursing Data and Research Consortium (NDRC) is creating data infrastructure and identifying current evidence and research gaps to support future research.

NDRC’s interdisciplinary experts in nursing research work collaboratively to guide VHA nursing research and practice using a health system model. Led by Lisa Burkhart, PhD, RN; Lynn Baniak, PhD, RN; and Laura Petersen, MD, MPH, NDRC strives to advance nursing research to improve patient care outcomes, facilitate workforce decision making, and inform policymaking.

NDRC is guided by nursing research priority areas identified during an HSR Nursing State-of-the-Art conference (Nursing SOTA) held in 2023:

• Workplace violence prevention/nurse work environment
• Care coordination
• Social determinants of health
• Nursing staffing
• Pressure injury prevention

To optimize VA nursing and nursing research in these priority areas, NDRC is working to achieve three goals:

1. Enhance data infrastructure: Develop nursing data infrastructure to support nursing research and evaluation initiatives.
2. Synthesize evidence: Conduct a scoping review for each priority area to describe existing knowledge that guides current practice, implementation, and evaluation. Additionally, identify knowledge gaps to guide future research.
3. Cultivate networks: Cultivate inclusive networks to advance the five research priority areas identified during the Nursing SOTA and achieve real-world impacts.

NDRC VA Partners

• Office of Nursing Services
• Office of Quality and Patient Safety
• Office of Workforce Management and Consulting
• Office of Nursing Informatics
• VA Information Resource Center
• Health Economics Resource Center
• Access and Community Care Engagement Network Team
• Houston Evidence-based Rapid Measurement and Evaluations Center
• VA Quality Scholars
• Workplace Violence Prevention Program

NDRC Impacts and Progress toward Goals

Beginning in FY2025, NDRC collaborated with operational partners and the nursing research community to accomplish the following:

Enhanced data infrastructure

• Developed a conceptual model of nursing-relevant data to help organize and communicate available data sources.
• Compiled material on available data sources and their features.
• In partnership with HSR, HSR’s Health Economics Resource Center (HERC), and the Office of Analytics and Performance Integration, secured sponsorship for establishing a virtual operations workspace where NDRC can evaluate data sources and prepare pre-processed datasets for request by the research community.
• Drafted material to be posted on the nursing data webpage hosted by the VA Information Resource Center (VIReC).
• Consulted with VIReC, the Office of Nursing Services (ONS), and the VHA Support Service Center regarding how to share historical data.
• Curated a list of 31 peer-reviewed papers that used VA nursing-relevant data.
• Developed manuscripts that describe methods for using VA nursing data. Three of these were published in a 2025 Medical Care supplement:
• Examining changes in VA inpatient nurse staffing and workload before and through the COVID-19 pandemic. This study found that nurses had a higher workload following the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Estimating the relationship between the number of patients assigned to nurses and nurses’ time spent administering medication. This study found that nurses compensated for their increased patient load by only marginally reducing the time they spent with each patient.
• Characterizing inpatient registered nurse turnover in rural and urban VHA hospitals. In this study’s cohort of inpatient registered nurses (RNs), 34% of RNs left inpatient direct care in FY2022. The RN turnover was greater in rural hospitals, but individual RN-specific features and care delivery structure were more strongly associated than rurality with the variation in turnover at rural vs. urban hospitals.
• Determined best practices for processing data inquiries and prepared related documentation to assist researchers.
• Highlighted to ONS current challenges in mapping electronic health record data, including challenges with mapping inpatient wards to nursing units and mapping staff IDs to nursing roles.

Established three collaborative networks to inform research

• The 22 Veteran and caregiver members of NDRC’s Veteran and Caregiver Engagement Group (VCEG) provide input that ensures NDRC research is grounded in Veteran and caregiver needs. Meeting at least twice a year, the VCEG guides NDRC activities, offers input on priority areas, and helps expand meaningful Veteran participation in research using the Strengthening Excellence in Research through Veteran Engagement (SERVE) Toolkit.
• The Forum network brings together institutional experts, operational partners, Veterans, and multidisciplinary representatives from across VA twice a year to consult on nursing practice and research priorities. Forum members rate and refine research gaps and ensure NDRC’s work remains aligned with the VHA Nursing Research Agenda.
• The Community of Practice (CoP) network extends NDRC’s reach across disciplines and researchers within VA to close research gaps and accelerate translation of research into practice. NDRC-led evaluations and feedback from CoP quarterly meetings identify emerging topics within priority areas, as well as needed resources and training. In addition, NDRC:
• Conducted a needs assessment that shaped data training curriculum, a current funding resource list, and education materials for CoP members.
• Used CoP member feedback to refine and prioritize research gaps.
• Delivered CoP education and activities focused on data skills, collaboration opportunities, and funding mechanisms.
• Launched a quarterly newsletter to share funding and training opportunities, evidence summaries, resources, and updates with CoP members.
• Convened two roundtable meetings to connect CoP members and seed teams for future research proposals.

Identified evidence and research gaps for workplace violence prevention

• Completed a scoping review and identification of needed research related to workplace violence (WPV) prevention interventions.
• Worked with Forum and CoP members to refine research gaps, and prioritized gaps with VCEG, Forum, and CoP members.
• Mapped gaps across the stages of translation research (basic, pre-clinical, clinical, health system, implementation, and policy) to guide future research.
• Identified current data sources to address WPV prevention gaps.
• Completed a focus group study with members of the VCEG to explore their perspectives on WPV experiences, safety perceptions, and prevention strategies.
• Collaborated with ONS to analyze policy related to WPV prevention.
• In progress: NDRC is collaborating with ONS and the Workplace Violence Prevention Program office to develop strategies and proposals that address the identified research and data gaps.

Identified evidence and research gaps related to care coordination

• Completed a focus group study with members of the VCEG to describe their experiences of nursing care coordination during transitions from inpatient to outpatient VA care and their recommendations to improve these transitions and overall coordination.
• In progress: NDRC is completing a scoping review and identification of research and gaps related to care coordination for individuals with mental and physical health conditions.

Disseminated key findings to VA partners, collaborators, and research communities

• Prepared a summary report of WPV prevention results for VHA use.
• Secured a special issue in the Western Journal of Nursing Research to disseminate NDRC’s work related to WPV prevention, to be published in 2026. The issue will include commentary from a Veteran and nine articles submitted by the NDRC community.
• Disseminated news of NDRC activities and results through poster presentations at annual meetings for the Midwestern Nursing Research Society, Eastern Nursing Research Society, Western Innovations in Nursing, and AcademyHealth.
• Disseminated WPV prevention results through a VA webinar and presentations at local VHA facilities.

Addressed key needs for partners and collaborators

• Provided guidance to individual investigators who wished to include VHA nursing data in research grant proposals.
• Hosted a group discussion with VCEG members for a VA Office of Research and Development (ORD) initiative aiming to identify chronic disease research priorities, to ensure that VCEG perspectives shape these emerging priorities.
• Helped lead the development of a Research Interest and Implementation Group in a regional nursing research society and collaborated with other regional nursing research societies.
• Shared the data curriculum designed for the CoP with the analytics core and fellowship program directors at HSR’s Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness, and Safety (IQuESt).
• In progress: NDRC is collaborating with ONS to communicate NDRC activities and research opportunities nationally, identify potential VA research team members for future NDRC-related proposals, and co-develop targeted training for CoP members.

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