Nursing research: some guidelines for practitioners

In a state of rapid change, nursing over the last few years has become almost unrecognizable. And the profession, says Cushla Beckingham, has perhaps never been more divided. Some nurses (particularly those too senior to gain entry to tertiary courses) see a great chasm between tertiary-educated nurses and those who give "old-style" nursing care based on intuition. Indeed, the profession does consist of three separate groups--the educators and the practitioners (between which is a large gap) plus nurse managers. For Beckingham, research based on area of practice could be the uniting factor, particularly in the search for cost-cutting programmes, as government funds for medical care diminish with each new budget.