Research Grants

The AONL Foundation envisions a healthier tomorrow advanced through nursing leadership and strives to achieve that vision by providing resources to create opportunities to bridge science and practice to shape the future of nursing leadership. 

The AONL Foundation supports the vision and mission by supporting the generation of new knowledge through actionable research to:

• Optimize Leadership Effectiveness
• Achieve Equity in Health Care
• Improve the Health Care Experience.

Purpose

The purpose of this RFP is to support an increasingly diverse nurse leader population, with an emphasis on the front line nurse leaders or managers, as they lead in changing health care environments with growing emphasis on social determinates of health (SDOH) and health care equity. Specifically, AONL Foundation aims to optimize a host of outcomes as they intersect with equity, diversity, cultural sensitivity, and nurse leadership practice.  It is the intent of the AONL Foundation to assist in the generation of timely, innovative, and cost effective solutions that can be implemented in the near future.  

The need for greater diversity and improved cultural competence in the nursing  and nursing leadership workforce has been well documented. Publications/organizations including The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity (National Academy of Medicine, 2021) and the Johnson & Johnson, American Nurses Association, and American Organization for Nursing Leadership’s Accelerating Nursing, Transforming Healthcare are timely exemplars identifying this call.  Building on these works, the AONL Foundation seeks to apply funds to support knowledge development to answer questions in this vein, such as: 

• How does equity influence health care?
• What are the structures, processes, and systems that can be put in place in organizations to enable equitable health care? Do these require a redesign of care while considering SDOH?
• What role does the nurse leader--at all levels, front-line leader to system chief nurse--play in those structures, processes and systems?
• What are the barriers to providing equitable access to nursing leadership roles? What are the best practices to recruiting, hiring, and engaging new nurse leaders that mitigate these barriers?
• What are organizational goals related to diversity? How do organizations define an appropriate mix? How are performance metrics defined? For example, reflect the demographics of the community served or national population? 
• How diversity among nurse managers impacts their teams and patients.  
• How organizations are recruiting and training a diverse nurse manager workforce with regard to cultural competencies, social determinates of health, health equity and nurse well-being.
• The benefits of diversity in the nurse manager workforce.
• Strategies implemented by nurses in executive and management roles in the health care organizations and in the community to improve diversity among nurse managers and the impact of increased diversity relative to eliminating disparities and improving health equity among the community.
• The structural determinants required in the microsystem to impact health and health equity.
• The unique leadership competencies required to successfully lead teams reflecting a predominance of people who are diverse in race, sexual orientation or other characteristic.

This grant award can support observational or intervention research to address the requested learnings.  

Observational studies might be preliminary investigations to describe diversity among nurse managers and the impacts of having a diverse nurse manager team.  Studies that address the role of the nurse manager in addressing inequities in health care and are linked to larger, ongoing projects will also be considered.  Investigators may use any of the qualitative traditions (ethnography, phenomenology, grounded theory, etc.), descriptive quantitative designs, or mixed methods to explore these topics. Studies that are translatable to practice (in the near future) or set groundwork for continued funded outcomes-focused research are encouraged.  

Interventional studies may focus on recruiting and training a diverse nurse manager workforce, as one example.  Interventions must directly address diversity among nurse managers and the impacts on nurse well-being, patient outcomes, social determinants of health, or health equity.  Interventions should include all appropriate organizational stakeholders (e.g. a project addressing recruitment of diverse nurse managers should include organizational leadership, human resource personnel, hiring manager, and others as needed.)  It is expected that the interventions will have the potential to be sustained in the organization or setting and should be scalable for implementation in other settings.
 

Eligibility Criteria:

• Principal investigator must be current licensed Registered Nurse.

• Members of the board of directors, officers, and staff of the AONL Foundation, AONL, the American Hospital Association and its affiliates are not eligible to apply.

• Researchers currently funded by the AONL Foundation are not eligible for this award.

• Priority may be given to diverse applicants

Apply Today!

Complete Grant Details

Grant Detail:

The AONL Foundation plans to award one (1) grant of $15,000.

Guidelines

• This grant award applies only to research studies and does not include evidence-based projects.
• Documentation of Institute Review Board (IRB) approval will be required prior to initiation of funding (timetable for IRB approval to be included in proposal if not already obtained).
• Implementation of the research project must commence immediately upon receipt of the funds.
• Research project must be completed within time frame established above, inclusive of dissemination.
  • Dissemination should include presentation at a national conference and submission of a manuscript for publication in a peer reviewed journal. A webinar or other format may also be considered.
    • Please note, if planning to submit an abstract to present at an AONL Annual Conference, abstract should reflect completed study.
  • A portion of the award money will be dependent upon completion of award study.
  • The AONL Foundation should be acknowledged in all publications and presentations that use/reference the findings.
• Budget proposals:
  • AONL Foundation provides funding for direct expenses, and allows up to 10% of total grant funds to be used for indirect expenses or overhead expenses. 
  • No investigator time will be supported. All other research-related expenditures including salary support for research assistants or statisticians, incentivizing study participants, supplies, software, printed materials, copying, communications, and expenses related to attending and presenting study findings at conferences are acceptable expenses.
    • When building budget to attend and present findings at a national conference, consider all travel, poster design and printing, and other associated costs.
• All research proposals are expected to address the AONL Foundation priority Achieving Equity in Health Care. Proposal may also address one of the other priority areas:
  • Optimizing Leadership Effectiveness
  • Improving the Health Care Experience.

Review Process

All submitted proposals will undergo a blind review by members of the AONL Foundation Board’s Research Review Committee.  The grant award recipient will be selected based on consideration of eligibility and merit of the research proposal.  Review criteria will include:

• What is the overall impact of the proposed research study on the defined purpose?
• What is the significance and innovativeness of the planned study?
• Is the study strategy, methodology and data analysis plan rigorous and can it be accomplished in the projected time frame?
• Is the support (budget) requested justified to the proposed research?

Priority will be given to:

• Research work that advances nursing leadership. 
• Proposals that identify original research opportunities.
  • If the research opportunity proposed is a replication, large-impact studies will receive priority.

Previous research completed, and research experience will be taken into account. 

Expectations of Grant Recipient

• At the beginning of the grant period, the principal investigators will provide a jpg head shot and a narrative biography of no more than 300 words for each investigator.
• At the midpoint and at the conclusion of the research study the principal investigators will submit an interim and final report, respectively, on the progress of the study.
• At quarterly intervals, principal investigators and study team will meet with AONL Foundation staff and a member of the Research Committee designated as the study's research liaison. These informal check in meetings will keep everyone apprised of the study and current status.
• Upon conclusion of the study and within the timeline the principal investigators will:
  • Submit an abstract and, if accepted, present study findings at a national conference.
  • Submit manuscript for publication to at least one peer reviewed nursing research journal.
  • Submit a summary of the study to be added to the online AONL Foundation Research Repository.
  • Allow study findings to be incorporated into the AONL Foundation’s marketing and communications.
  • Aid the AONL Foundation in demonstrating impact of the research.
• Principal investigator will ensure proper acknowledgement of AONL Foundation and the underwriting donor in all publications and presentations.

Proposal Application Details

An electronic copy (Microsoft Word or PDF) of the entire proposal shall be submitted online via AONL Foundation's website. Applications should be no longer than eight (8) single-spaced pages with 1-inch margins in Times New Roman or Arial 12-point font. References should be cited using APA format and are to be included within the 8-page limit. Copies of planned surveys or other measures, and permissions for use, are to be to be included as appendices.

A second copy (Microsoft Word or PDF) of the entire proposal—with all identifying information of researcher(s) and institution(s) removed—shall be submitted online via the AONL Foundation's website. The same page limit applies.

Please see complete grant details for proposal specifics.

Complete Grant Details.

Apply Today!

Acknowledgment

Funding for these research studies is made possible by a gift from AMN Healthcare.  Thank you for your generous support.  

Inquiries

For questions about the submission or review process, please contact Dani Ward, AONL Foundation director, at dmward@aha.org.