ABSTRACT
This chapter presents preliminary discussions and a survey of the literature, started in February 1964. In the case of the National Health Service hospitals the Ministry of Health wrote on our behalf to all Regional Hospital Boards requesting that permission be given to carry out the research at the relevant hospitals in their area. The complicated and unsystematic nature of some methods of recording used seemed surprising, since it undoubtedly resulted in considerable delay when information was required about a particular patient whose number and ward location was unknown. In hospitals a series of structured interviews were carried out with the superintendent, senior nursing staff, heads of all specialist departments, nurses in charge of wards and hostels wardens. After the data had been collected it was coded on to transfer sheets by five coders working in pairs. Constant discussion took place between teams of coders in order to minimize discrepancies arising from different interpretations of the data.
