"Patience Goes Hand-in-Hand with Persistence When Seeking Research Funding"

Kristine M. Kulage, MA, MPH oversees the daily operations of the Office of Scholarship and Research Development (OSR) at Columbia Nursing, providing assistance to faculty and pre- and post-doctoral students in a wide range of activities related to their scholarly and research endeavors.

Kulage leads writing workshops for Columbia Nursing faculty and postdocs and coordinates monthly Reach for Research Excellence (REX) Seminars. She serves as Co-Editor of the National Council of University Research Administrators Magazine, is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Research Administration, and is a student member of the New York Academy of Medicine and the American Public Health Association. She recently received a Master’s in Public Health, emphasis in Health Policy and Management, from Columbia Mailman School of Public Health and was the recipient of Columbia Nursing’s first annual Research Staff Excellence Award.

Q: You created and direct a popular writing workshop at Columbia Nursing where faculty essentially “peer-review” each other’s manuscripts in preparation for submission to scholarly journals.  What are some practical tips for researchers to write better papers that ultimately result in publication?

In the introductory session to the writing workshop that I lead, I present members with key tips designed both to making their writing time more productive and their papers more well-written: (1) Set aside ‘non-negotiable’ writing time; (2) If you need to stop writing, stop when you know what you are going to write next; (3) Always write for your reader; and (4) ‘Show, don’t tell’. Of these, the most critical element would have to be (3) Always write for your reader.  This will ensure that your manuscript is targeted to the audience of the journal you are planning to submit to, that your writing is clear and organized, and that enough detail is provided so that a reader who may not have full knowledge of the topic area can still understand and learn from the article.

Q: Competition is especially strong for government funds to conduct research. How do you help writers bring their submissions up to a competitive level?

In the increasingly competitive landscape for ever-dwindling federal funding, it is important that every aspect of a grant application be as strong, accurate, and ‘clean’ as possible, as well as appropriately targeted to the call for proposals and the funding institute’s priority interests.  To ensure the project’s significance, innovation, and scientific rigor, the OSR coordinates initiatives such as the SOAR Session (Specific Objectives and Aims Review) and Mock Reviews during the developmental stages of the application.  These provide opportunities for other faculty experts to provide unbiased comments and suggestions for improving the overall quality of the scientific methodology of grant applications and often target important changes in a proposal which may make the difference between an unscored and a highly-scored application.  Efforts of Columbia Nursing’s OSR and Grants Management Office conducted ‘behind the scenes’ ensure accurate, complete, and consistently-formatted grant applications; we feel that every aspect of the application is under scrutiny in the review process, and attention to detail in every element can elevate an application just enough above the competitors to obtain funding.

Q: What are some of the personal and professional qualities that you consider essential for a person to have a successful career in academic research?

Having worked closely with researchers at academic medical centers for over 18 years, I would identify four essential qualities for a successful research career: persistence, patience, curiosity, and vision.  Persistence is required as grant funding almost never comes on the first try; it’s incredibly competitive and I’ve seen junior investigators submit a half-dozen major grant applications before they finally hit the bulls eye and achieve their first externally funded grant.  Patience goes hand in hand with persistence—not only does it take patience to be persistent, but the process of writing, revising, and simply waiting for a grant to be reviewed takes a good deal of patience.  I would argue that the trait of curiosity is at the core of all true academic researchers.  The best research projects almost always stem from a great question, which requires sincere curiosity.  What can be done to improve the poor infant mortality rate in the US, one of the richest countries in the world?  Why are infection rates so high in hospitals when this is the place designed specifically so that people can get well?  By nature grants are built upon aims and hypotheses which are all about asking the right questions.  Finally, having ‘vision,’ being able to see the possibilities of what could be, enables a researcher to develop grant proposals that are new, unique, and innovative, qualities that funders demand in academic research today.

Q: In your opinion, what are the greatest misconceptions about nursing research?

First, that nursing research is somehow ‘inferior’ to research being conducted by other health professionals (e.g., physicians).  Within nursing’s research niche, nurse researchers are able to design and conduct innovative research projects which require a unique perspective of patient populations and challenges which, in my opinion, could not be accomplished as effectively by other health professionals.  Nursing research moves the science forward in ways that could not be achieved otherwise because of the important hands-on role that nurses play in a wide array of aspects of the delivery of patient care.  Another would be that nursing research is not interdisciplinary in nature.  In the past decade, working in the field of research administration in a school of nursing, I have seen the trend toward interdisciplinary research grow exponentially. Researchers regularly collaborate with faculty members in medicine, public health, dentistry, psychiatry, and the list goes on.  In fact, I would argue that nursing research is less likely to be conducted in a silo because of the very nature of the nursing profession.