Maternal--child nursing research: review of the past and strategies for the future.

Major subdivisions of research in maternal--child nursing (MCN) include childbearing, childrearing, care of the sick or hospitalized child, and a strong emerging emphasis on the special needs of the child in infancy and in special populations, such as mental retardation and chronic illnesses. An example of MCN research is presented--the Nursing Child Assessment Project, funded by the Division of Nursing, which provides a conceptual basis and methodologies to look at inputs and outputs of expressions of child health and illness. Strategies to assist maternal-child nurse scholars to add to their data base--particularly a focus on infancy, childrearing, and specific populations, including an extension into what now is becoming a major concern of American families, care of their aging members--are defined. Needed are additional mechanisms for providing research training for nurses in MCN, as is a network for collaboration and cooperation in the form of systematic input into literature retrieval systems supportive of concepts and which would further the ability to communicate for the exchange of validation of ideas. Although a knowledge base in MCN is emerging, nurses should move onward in a more systematic manner and develop more successful intraprofessional communication.