An organizing framework for faculty scholarship at the University at Buffalo, School of Nursing is the Quality Health Outcomes Model proposed by the American Academy of Nursing Expert Panel on Quality Health Care (1998). This dynamic model recognizes that feedback occurs among clients, the system or context in which care is provided, and interventions and eventual health outcomes. The aim of the model (Figure 1) is to: (1) guide development of databases relevant to quality improvement initiatives and outcomes management initiatives, (2) suggest key variables in intervention work, (3) provide a framework for outcomes research and outcomes management that compare not only treatment options but organizational- and system- level interventions (1998,p. 44).

Faculty of School of Nursing use the model to serve as a basis for the multiple phases of a program of research including descriptive analysis, theory generating, instrument development, and intervention studies/clinical trials. The model is used to delineate the focus of faculty member's current research (client-centered, population-centered, descriptive and/or intervention oriented). University at Buffalo School of Nursing faculty acknowledge the impact of system and client characteristics on interventions. The strength of the model is that it is not linear or unidirectional but illustrates reciprocal directions of influence of the system, client, intervention and outcome on health and illness and thus can also illustrate various points in any one program of research.

Faculty at the University at Buffalo School of Nursing who are early in their careers use the model to portray the current emphasis in their research programs and the relationship of their present study/project to potential health outcomes or policy. As a faculty we also recognize that programs of research necessarily start with theory generation, descriptive studies and/or instrument development/testing. We recognized that research programs should naturally progress to intervention or policy-relevant studies culminating in identifying and influencing quality health outcomes. The Quality Health Outcomes Model has the potential to guide practice and policy in addition to research.

[Faculty will insert paragraphs describing where their proposal application or project fits with their program of research and the SON organizational model]