ABSTRACT
The development of nursing practice depends on many things. A crucial factor is the availability and use of high-quality evidence in the development process. For nursing, this first became enshrined in policy in 1972, when the Briggs report recommended that the profession should be research based: ‘Nursing should become a research-based profession’ (Briggs, 1972:108). In 1993, the NHS Management Executive stated that: ‘nursing research should be integrated into primary care nursing practice. Existing practice should be continuously evaluated to ensure that every nursing activity is demonstrably beneficial to individual patient outcome and population health gain’ (NHS Management Executive, 1993:39). This sentiment was reiterated in the Mant report on research and development in primary care (NHS Executive, 1997).
