Setting up a nursing research unit

Abstract

Primary care is central to the NHS, and it is where 85 per cent of all health care problems are managed. However, much primary care clinical activity is unsupported by any substantial body of evidence. The launch of the NHS research and development strategy in 1991 articulated for the first time, at a national policy level, the need for the nation’s health services to have a scientific basis. The strategy sought to promote a range of research from basic to applied, aiming to inform clinical management decisions in the NHS (DoH 1991). Subsequent policy sought to prioritise the need for research (DoH 1993).