Nursing Policy Research: The Case of the Black Hole

DHSS, NHS Management Inquiry (The Griffiths Report), DA (83) 38, DHSS, London, 1983; DHSS, Health Service Management: Implementation of the NHS Management Inquiry Report, HC (84) 13, DHSS, London, 1984.

The establishment by the DHSS of the nursing research units following the Rothschild Report (1971) on the organisation and management of government research and development is discussed in Robinson J. Elkan R. , Research for policy and policy for research: A review of selected DHSS – funded nurse education research 1975–1986, Nursing Policy Studies 5, NPSC, University of Warwick, 1989.

NPSC, Quadrennial Report 1985–1988, NPSC, University of Warwick, 1988.

The following substantive policy issues had been adressed previously: Child abuse ( Robinson J. , Inter-disciplinary in-service education for health visitors and social workers, Child Abuse and Neglect , 3, 749–755, 1979); Health visiting ( Robinson J. An evaluation of health visiting, ENB/CETHV, London, 1982); Perinatal mortality ( Robinson J. , Perinatal mortality – report on a research study, Int. J. Health Care QA, 2:2, 13–19, 1989; Robinson J. , A casket instead of a crib – funerals of babies who die during the perinatal period: A case study in the need for qualitative quality assurance, Senior Nurse 7:9, 16–18, 1987).

Robinson J. Strong P. , Professional nursing advice after Griffiths: An interim report , Nursing Policy Studies 1, 1987; Strong P. Robinson J. , New model management: Griffiths and the NHS , Nursing Policy Studies 3, 1988, Robinson J. Strong P. Elkan R. , Griffiths and the nurses: A national survey of CNAs , Nursing Policy Studies 4, 1989, NPSC, University of Warwick.

Strong P. Robinson J. , The NHS: Under new management Open University Press, Milton Keynes, 1990.

Gray A. , The economics of nursing: A literature review , Nursing Policy Studies 2, 1987; Robinson J. Elkan R. , 1989, op. cit note 2; Robinson J. Stilwell J. Hawley C. Hempstead N. , The role of the support worker in the ward health care team, Nursing Policy Studies 6, 1989, NPSC, University of Warwick.

Robinson J. Gray A. Elkan R. (eds), Nursing policy studies Open University Press, Milton Keynes, in press.

Robinson J. , Nursing in the future: A cause for concern? in Jolley M. Allan P. (eds) Current issues in nursing , Chapman and Hall, London, 1989; Robinson J. , Power, politics and policy analysis in nursing in Perry A Jolley M. (eds), Nursing the knowledge base for practice, Edward Arnold, Leeds, in press.

Rein M. , From policy to practice, Macmillan, London, 1983; Bulner M. , The uses of social research: Social investigation in public policymaking. Comtemporary social research: No. 3, George Allen and Unwin, Hemel Hempstead, 1982; Hall P. Land H. Parker R. Webb A. , Change, choice and conflict in social policy, Heinemann, London, 1978.

Strong P. , Minor courtesies and macro structures in Drew P. Wootton A. J. (eds), Erving Goffman: Exploring the interaction order, Polity Press, London, 1988.

The methods appendix in P. strong, The ceremonial order of the clinic, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1979, contains a technical discussion of the techniques to which he subscribes.

The work of M. Foucault is important. D. Armstrong's work on the social construction of medical knowledge (especially in relation to perinatal mortality – The invention of infant mortality, Sociology of health and illness, 8, 211–232, 1986), and Lukes S. , Power: A radical view, Macmillan, London, 1986, have been personally influential.

Hammersley M. Atkinson P. , Ethnography: Principles in practice, Tavistock, London, 1987.

Reverby S. , Ordered to care: The dilemma of American nursing, 1850–1945, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987.

Pizurki H. Mejla A. Butter I. Ewart L. , (eds), Women as providers of health care, World Health Organisation, Geneva, 1987.