A nurse holds the foot of a NICU baby at Valley Children's Hospital.

Beyond the Bedside: The Role of Nurse Scientists in Healthcare and Research

Published July 8, 2026

The Voices section is a place for physicians, staff and community leaders to share their perspectives on all things healthcare. Stephanie Lapsley is a NICU outreach coordinator at Valley Children’s and a PhD candidate in nursing at the University of Arizona.

MADERA, Calif. – I still remember the day I realized my role in neonatal healthcare would need to grow beyond the bedside.

Several years into my career as a NICU nurse, I found myself sitting with a grieving mother as she learned her baby had been born with a fatal condition. Through tears, she asked why this had happened, if there was something she could have done differently to protect her unborn child. The neonatologist explained that while her work in agriculture could have potentially exposed her to several known toxins that contribute to poor neonatal health outcomes, nothing could be known for sure.

In that moment, I understood that while NICU nurses are experts in stabilizing and caring for the sickest of babies after birth, we also needed nurses asking the deeper questions about what shapes health before birth. That, I would go on to discover, is the work of nurse scientists.

Nurse scientists are PhD-prepared nurses who use their clinical experience to guide research that improves patient care, health systems and community well-being. Because we possess clinical knowledge and skills, as well as a nuanced understanding of the realities of caring for patients and families, nurse scientists are uniquely positioned to identify problems, study solutions and translate evidence into practice all through a comprehensive nursing lens. The work of nursing science across the world has led to safer care, better outcomes, stronger policies and more equitable health systems.

Now in neonatal healthcare, my role has transitioned its scope from bedside care to researching the conditions that may influence infant health long before delivery. My research focuses on the impact of water insecurity, which is the lack of reliable access to safe, sufficient and affordable water for drinking, sanitation, hygiene and infant feeding on neonatal health outcomes.

Modeling Water Insecurity as an Existential Threat to Neonatal Health in the San Joaquin Valley of California Download

While this may seem distant from the work of the NICU nurse, this science has implications for both maternal and infant health and its impact results in the downstream conditions frequently cared for at the bedside. In the San Joaquin Valley, many families in rural and agricultural communities may rely on contaminated wells or small community water systems, forcing them to ration household water or depend on bottled water for daily needs. These challenges can contribute to stress and increase environmental exposures – factors associated with outcomes such as preterm birth, low birth weight, birth defects and NICU admission.

This is why nursing-led science matters. Connecting bedside care with public health, policy and the social and environmental conditions that shape wellness broadens the lens of the bedside nurse, allowing for intervention at multiple touchpoints in patient’s lives. Dissemination and translation of this science may take the form of new screening tools, incorporating environmental context into patient education or recognizing how community conditions affect discharge planning and long-term outcomes.

Nursing has always been rooted in advocacy and holistic care, and nursing science carries that tradition forward by generating the evidence needed to improve care for future patients. If we want healthier beginnings for the smallest patients among us, we must be willing to look upstream – and support the nurses doing the work to understand what we find there.