research in gerontological nursing for a number of reasons. As is now
common knowledge, the actual number and relative percentage of elders
are increasing rapidly throughout the world. The need for high-quality
gerontological nursing care has never been as great as it is today—and
this need will increase in the foreseeable future. A significant amount of
research in specific areas of gerontological nursing—notably the management
of common conditions in elders and settings of care—has been
completed over the past two decades. Thus, it is a good time to look back
at what has been done using systematic research syntheses to serve as a
basis for our next steps. Current trends in public health and science call
for rethinking traditional approaches to the care of elders by gerontological
nurses. Finally, there are areas of research that, although acknowledged
as important in gerontological nursing, have not received the attention
they deserve from researchers. Volume 20, therefore, looks back to summarize
our knowledge from research over the past two decades and looks
forward by projecting new directions for gerontological nursing and gerontological
nursing research.
For methods we leaned heavily on Cooper and Hedges (1994, p. 5)
who state, "The integrative research review can be defined as the conjunction
of a particular focus and goal: Research syntheses attempt to integrate
empirical research for the purpose of creating generalizations. Implicit in
this definition is the notion that seeking generalizations also involves
seeking the limits and modifiers of generalizations." Cooper and Hedges'
approach to problem formulation, data collection, data evaluation, analysis
and interpretation was helpful in developing Volume 20 and specific
chapters within it.