Membership Survey Overview
Respondent Characteristics: Of the 315 (24% of members) who responded to the
survey, 75% were regular members, 21% were student members, 2% were
retired and 2% held international memberships. Almost half (47%) of
respondents were aged 50-59, 10% were younger than 39, 18% were 40-49
years old, and 25% were 60 years or older. Respondents are employed
in academic institutions (88%) or clinical agencies (9%).
Tenure as an MNRS member ranged from less than 1 year (14%), 1-3
years (20%), 4-8 years (23%), 9-15 years (21%) and more than 15 years
(23%). Half of respondents also belong to a specialty organization
with a primary focus on research, and 24% are members of the Council
for the Advancement of Nursing Research (CANS). Most first became
aware of MNRS via recommendations from faculty advisors during
graduate school (51%), or from colleagues (30%). Several were
encouraged to join MNRS by their undergraduate faculty or advisor.
Respondents represented all 27 research sections.
Value of MNRS Membership: 85% of respondents indicated they were satisfied or
very satisfied with overall value of their MNRS Membership. The top
ranked benefits of membership were networking, WJNR, opportunities to
present research, and the annual conference. WJNR was considered an
important value of MNRS membership; 86% of respondents were satisfied
or very satisfied with the journal. About two-thirds (66%) of
respondents were satisfied or very satisfied with the MNRS website.
Satisfaction with research sections was rated lowest with only 58% of
respondents indicating they were satisfied or very satisfied.
MNRS Conference: A
majority of respondents (72%) had attended the annual conference in
the past 2 years, 89% indicated they were satisfied or very satisfied
with the conferences, and 92% were satisfied or very satisfied with
the quality of research presented. Aspects of the annual
conference that were rated highest in importance were: opportunities
to: 1) be informed about the latest research findings (97%), present
research (97%), and learn about research methods (96%). Several
respondents (n=96) offered a wide array of suggestions to improve the
conference with the most frequent being to control/reduce costs
(16%).
Suggestions for Increasing Membership: The most frequent suggestions were focused on keeping membership
fees reasonable (n=42), getting the word out to students at all
levels, including undergraduates (n=32), and increasing visibility in
clinical agencies (n=17).
Suggestions for Improvement: Services that respondents would like to see offered included
web-based services such as interactive networking opportunities,
online chat rooms, social networking, online educational and
conference materials, an online-only option for WJNR, and greater use
of the web to support Research Sections (n=23). Suggestions for
improving the value of MNRS membership were offered by 106
respondents. These included reducing costs of membership (20%),
increasing grant opportunities (6%), improving research sections,
(5%) and increasing networking and activities between annual meetings
(4%).
Strategic Initiatives: Virtually all respondents endorsed the 5 strategic
goals as very or somewhat important for MNRS. These included
mentoring (98%), building bridges to clinical utilization (97%),
membership development (97%), shaping science policy and research
agendas (99%); and sharing knowledge (100%).
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