USUHS, Research, Centers, TSNRP

TRISERVICE NURSING RESEARCH PROGRAM (TSNRP)

TSNRP solves challenges to ensure every warfighters' ability to survive, thrive, and remain fit for duty.

Military nursing research finds solutions for: 

• Challenging healthcare delivery settings, like austere environments, extreme temperatures, ground warfare, maritime operations, airborne missions, natural disasters, and pandemics.

• Mission operational readiness and performance of service members, before, during, and after active conflicts.

• Cost-effective delivery of high-quality, evidence-based healthcare for military personnel and their families worldwide.

• Occupational and environmental hazards that affect the physical and mental health and readiness of service members such as chemical, biological or nuclear exposures.

• Illness, stress, and injury resulting from large scale combat operations, humanitarian missions, and other deployments.

• Innovations to improve clinical outcomes and evidence-based practice across the military healthcare system.

Military nursing science is also being used in the civilian health system. For example, the Maryland Department of State Police adopted a blood administration course and toolkit created as a result of a TSNRP-funded evidence-based practice project led by an Air Force nurse. As a result, Maryland administers life-saving blood products during helicopter rescues. ​​

For the Department of Defense, TSNRP identifies the most innovative military nursing research that promises significant, positive 
impacts on military warfighters and their families so they receive the best evidence-based care on the frontline and at home. ​Since 2019, TSNRP-funded research has been conducted at more than 30 sites in 23 states, and in collaboration with 35 public universities.

TSNRP-funded military nursing research includes studies such as these: 

• Infection Control in Tomorrow's Battlefield

• Anticipating Future Combat Needs: Radiation Burn Training for Nurses

• Development of a BioChip for Rapid Detection of Urinary Tract Infection in Combat Settings

• Effects of Temperature Extremes on Medications in an Austere Environment

• Severe Burn Nursing Care in Large Scale Combat Operations

• Prevention of Pressure Injuries During Aeromedical Evacuation

• Effect of Epinephrine Sequestration on the Return of Spontaneous Circulation

• Battlefield Acupuncture for the Treatment of Low Back Pain

• Effects of Sleep Deficiency on National Guard Personnel Responding to Disasters

• Home Therapies for Musculoskeletal Injuries in Active Duty

• Exertional Heat Illness: Deployability, Risk Assessment, and Clinical Management

• Effect of Intraosseous vs. Intravenous Lidocaine in a Cardiac, Hypovolemic Arrest Model (to address battlefield hemorrhage)

• Identifying Infectious Contamination of Military Uniform in a Hospital Setting

• Sleep, Mental Disorders and Traumatic Brain Injury in Deployed Military Members

• Improving Resiliency in U.S. Armed Forces Personnel

• Non-pharmacologic Interventions for Sleep and Back Pain for Military Personnel

• Military Unique Competencies for Combat Palliative and End-Of-Life Care

The mission of the TriService Nursing Research Program is to facilitate nursing research to optimize the health of military members and their beneficiaries. TSNRP is the only Congressionally-authorized Department of Defense program to fund rigorous military nursing research and EBP projects that save lives, solve complex problems, and improve healthcare outcomes across the military healthcare system. Recognizing that military nurses play a critical role in the health and welfare of the military population, Congress appropriated $1 million for nursing research in 1992. Since then, TSNRP has funded 545 grants totaling more than $200 million, resulting in dramatic improvements to battlefield triage, prolonged casualty care, readiness 
education, and clinical practice policy across the Defense Health Agency.

RESEARCH PRIORITIES

TSNRP supports quantitative and qualitative studies from armed services Nurse Corps members to include all clinical specialties to advance care for military warfighters and their beneficiaries in several strategic research areas:

• Force Health Protection
  • Fit and Ready Force
  • Deploy with and care for our warriors
  • Care for all entrusted to our care
• Nursing Competencies and Practice
  • Patient Outcomes
  • Quality and Safety
  • Translate research into practice/Evidence-Based Practice
  • Clinical Excellence
  • Knowledge Management
  • Education and Training
• Leadership, Ethics, and Mentoring
  • Health Policy
  • Recruitment and Retention
  • Preparing Tomorrow's Leaders
  • Care of the Caregiver