According to Virginia Henderson, Research is a structured systematic study formulated to answer a question or solve a problem. Her life in research started in Yale School of Nursing as a Nursing Associate in 1953. She worked on Critical View of Nursing Research and found out that most of the nursing researches conducted were primarily focused on Nurses and not nursing care.
She also noted that there was no organized literature upon which to base clinical studies. As a result, she started a project that annotates nursing literature.
Nursing Studies Index is an eleven year project while she was in Yale. This is a five volume of nursing research studies that was completed in 1972. Henderson considered this as her most important contribution to nursing.
“What is the Nursing Treatment for Depression?” by Whall Al is a journal inspired by Hendersons’ 14 Fundamental Needs. Other nursing questions utilizing her theory are focused on applied research and or prescriptive level research. Examples of this are; What diet modification plan is effective to a patient newly diagnosed of coronary artery disease? What bed surface is effective in the prevention of pressure sores?.