Building high-impact science: the dean as innovator.

If funding level is accepted as an empirical referent of research productivity, the nursing profession's relatively low volume of funded research puts its capacity to influence practice and policy based on scientific evidence at a disadvantage. For the profession to effectively compete with other "high-impact," health-related disciplines, nursing leaders must find ways for a greater proportion of nursing faculty to excel as scientists, producing sufficient volume and quality of work in their careers to have a major influence on health care. In addition, if nursing leaders are to enhance nurses' interest in scientific development and use, the academic environment needs to foster greater connectivity of students at all levels of education with the scientific enterprise.