The major aim of the research undertaken by academic staff at The Nethersole School of Nursing is to inform and develop nursing knowledge and nursing practice. The outcome of such research contributes to promoting people's health in both hospital and community settings in Hong Kong. A particular focus is addressing cultural issues specific to Chinese populations, which can then be shared by the international nursing community.

The School is based within the Faculty of Medicine, which has an international reputation in research and clinical practice. This setting, combined with other areas of excellence situated within and outside the University, provides an excellent opportunity for collaborative research projects of an interdisciplinary nature. In addition, the School is currently in the process of developing collaborative projects with international partners.

The School also hosts regular research seminars and international conferences, such as the Pan-Pacific Nursing Conference and the Hong Kong Nursing Symposium on Cancer Care, for local and overseas nursing academics and colleagues to disseminate and share research findings. Within the School, an important feature of our research activities is the weekly research seminar for doctoral and postgraduate research students where they have the opportunity of presenting and debating their research studies with academic staff.

Academic staff within the School has focused their research on specific areas reflecting the health needs of the population in Hong Kong and the majority of the projects are directly concerned with clinical practice. These areas of research have been formed into four research groups: cardiovascular and acute care, gerontology and long term care, cancer and palliative care, and knowledge transfer. A selection of the research projects currently in progress or being completed by each group is given below. The major source of funding for the majority of projects is from external competitive funds such as the Research Grants Council and the Health and Health Services Research Fund.