Developing the involvement of nurses in purchasing

This article addresses the fact that nurses appear to be under-represented in National Health Service (NHS) purchasing, a situation which has recently been examined by a working group from the NHS Executive (1994) entitled 'Building a stronger team: the nursing contribution to purchasing'. A number of potential reasons for this situation, which is so important for the future of the nursing profession, will be outlined. A different perspective will then be introduced in the form of a psychological instrument, the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) which will be described and related to this specific topic. The final section concerns a piece of current research which has the MBTI as its focus and contains material which is particularly relevant to the management of this problem.