Nurse practitioner research: selected literature review and research agenda.

Selected literature is reviewed to illustrate current conceptual and methodological issues in nurse practitioner research. Concepts of style of practice, acceptance, satisfaction, and outcome are discussed. Methodological issues are linking process to outcome, complexity measures, use of existing data, and the effect of nurse practitioner education and experience on interpretation of findings. A research agenda with two objectives is proposed: studies designed to improve rather than evaluate practice and studies designed with a policy framework in mind.