The nursing researchers in Taiwan today are facing various choices of reseach methods in the situation of prosperous development in nursing research. It is not enough to describe and explain the complex and dynamic relationships between persons and their environments by using only quantitative or qualitative research, but the utilization of research results in nursing practices to promote people's health is also needed. Action research has been proved to be effective in narrowing the gap between theory research, and practice in nursing. This paper will introduce the concepts and appliations of action research in order to provide nursing researchers a useful option while they are considering choosing methods which not only describe and explain health phenomena but also utilize results of nursing research to solve health problems. Action research is based on the concept of empowerment. This includes researchers empowering practitioners and practitioners empowering subjects, usually their partients. Researchers and subjects are in an equal position to share and exchange opinions from the establishment of research questions and finding ways to answer them, to solving problems by using research results. In this mutual sharing process, researchers and subjects can educate and learn from each other. Traditionally, "research" the way researchers project their philosophy and thoughts to explain subjects behaviors and then making comments and suggestions according to the researcher's personal experiences without any consultation with their subjects. The major purpose of using action research is to add the action of collaboration among researchers, practitioners, and subjects to clarify problems, find strategies to resolve problems, and to perform them consistently and continually.