Office of Nursing Research

Penn Nursing is the first school of nursing in the nation with an Office of Nursing Research dedicated to supporting scientific discoveries and translating nursing knowledge into new strategies for advancing healthcare.

Supporting Scientific Discovery

Informing & Shaping Policy

Research produced here at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing is nationally and internationally recognized. Our research, which helps inform and shape policy, is consistently published in a wide range of high-impact, interdisciplinary journals. Penn Nursing’s world-renowned investigators collectively rank near the top of all schools of nursing receiving federal funding.

Providing Comprehensive Services

The Office of Nursing Research (ONR) offers a comprehensive suite of services designed to support faculty and students throughout the life-cycle of a grant. The ONR provides statistical support, conducts mock reviews that result in a high grant award success rate, offers guidance with regulatory compliance, and hosts a state-of-the-art laboratory designed to promote collaboration between faculty and students of all levels and encourage translational research.

The Office of Nursing Research Values

Core Values: Trust, Respect, Integrity, & Purpose

Our goal is for these values to drive our interactions with each other and our constituents. These values govern our approach to provide assistance, share knowledge, and support innovation within an environment of inclusion, diversity and social equity.

Building Robust Funding Sources

Penn Nursing’s robust research portfolio boasts a wide range of funding mechanisms from NIH, AHRQ, CDC, and numerous foundations. Research at the School of Nursing is conducted through school-supported and grant-funded research centers. Faculty and student research efforts are vigorously supported through the ONR and the pilot grant program, major research awards, and the University’s significant resources.

Fostering Collaboration

Dedicated to continually expanding and strengthening Penn Nursing’s community knowledge base, the ONR offers colloquia spotlighting research topics of interest to better inform investigators across all levels of expertise. Additionally, the ONR connects Penn Nursing investigators with a broad network of multidisciplinary research colleagues so they can capitalize on overlapping areas of exploration with partners throughout the Penn community. The ONR also acts as a central liaison to the Perelman School of Medicine’s Biomedical Postdoctoral Program for Penn Nursing’s post-doctoral fellows.

RESEARCH NEWS

Penn Collaboratory to Fund Ten New Pilot Studies on Aging

The Penn Artificial Intelligence and Technology Collaboratory for Healthy Aging (PennAITech) – made up of Penn’s School of Nursing, the Perelman School of Medicine, and other departments across the University – focuses on identifying developing, evaluating, commercializing, and disseminating innovative technology and artificial intelligence methods/software to support aging. This is year two for the collaboratory – made possible through a grant from the National Institute on Aging – and it is providing more than $2.3 M in funding to ten pilot projects.

When Segregation of Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Threatens Care for People with Coexisting Conditions

Life becomes very complex for patients who need to manage pain due to cancer or other illness while still receiving methadone treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD). Methadone is a highly effective medication for treating OUD, however, the current U.S. regulatory framework mandates that methadone for OUD is exclusively accessible through federally approved Opioid Treatment Programs, with many individuals required to make daily visits for supervised dosing. This requirement places a significant burden on those with competing health needs, limited access to transportation, living in rural areas or in regions with few or no treatment programs.