doi:10.1155/2012/194147 Editorial Building the Clinical Bridge to Support Nursing Effectiveness Science

Copyright © 2012 Kathleen Potempa et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 1. Background Several forces in the US, including the need to control rising health care costs, are converging to require quality and safety outcomes as a factor in reimbursement for health care services. Many of the established outcomes, including nosocomial decubitus ulcers, falls with injury, medication errors, and self-care management are quality indicators sensitive to nursing care. Requirements for transparency in reporting outcomes as well as the rapid expansion of elec-tronic health records (EHRs) are producing opportunities to study clinical care processes and outcomes as heretofore not possible. The ability of nurse researchers to define th