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function previously the responsibility of the SHAs, the Government within its White Paper ‘Liberating the NHS: Developing the Healthcare Workforce’ (DH, 2010a) proposed the establishment of Local Education and Training Boards (LETBs) to provide a forum for workforce development to support research and innovation, coordinate workforce planning activity, and commission education and training locally. A new body, Health Education England (HEE), has been commissioned to authorise and to support LETBs to promote high-quality education and training. 03_preface.indd 7 13/09/2013 16:27 Preface viii The overarching principles enshrined in the new legislation refer to the need to make the NHS more responsive, efficient and accountable, with a culture of research that is embedded at every level in both the NHS and in public health. The Health and Social Care Act 2012 places new duties on the Secretary of State for Health, the board and clinical commissioning groups to have regard to the need to promote research within the health service by explicitly providing the legal basis for research in the new NHS architecture. Under this provision the Secretary of State has a duty to promote research on matters relevant to the health service and the use in the health service of evidence obtained from research. Clearly, healthcare professionals, including nurses and midwives, who are at the forefront of healthcare delivery, need to be aware of and skilled in research in order to fulfil the requirements of the Health and Social Care Act, and in meeting the needs of patients and clients within the new landscape of health and social care. This book aims to provide nurses and midwives with a sound theoretical knowledge base for understanding, critically appraising and undertaking research in all areas of health service provision. A comprehensive insight is provided into the philosophies, methodologies and methods used in social science research, where we locate the disciplines of nursing and midwifery, using examples from these distinct professions where appropriate. We include a new chapter which takes a pragmatic approach to research and offers a ‘how to do’ section, which nurses and midwives, beginning to engage with research for the first time, should find useful. Once again we take the view that nurses and midwives are autonomous and curious learners, prepared to supplement their reading with other sources. To this end we offer suggestions throughout for further reading, plus a number of exercises to develop research skills. The book introduces student nurses and midwives to research, taking, as in our first edition, a conventional approach. Qualitative and quantitative methodologies are considered separately. We begin in Chapter 1 with an overview of research philosophies and paradigms, including a consideration of mixed methods as a paradigm in and of itself, as opposed to simply a combination of methods. However, we recognise the place of mixed methods in our discussion of research design, strategy and data collection; therefore we refer to mixed methods throughout the book. We consider the importance of the research question and the literature review in determining the research design, before introducing quantitative, qualitative and mixed methodologies. Chapter 2 provides an overview of qualitative research methods, focusing on ethnography, phenomenology, grounded theory, action research, feminist 03_preface.indd 8 13/09/2013 16:27 Preface ix research and narrative methods. We illustrate the text with examples from published nursing and midwifery research where different research approaches have been used. Chapter 3 discusses methods for collecting qualitative data, including sampling strategies and methods for data analysis. Chapter 4 concludes the section on qualitative research, considering issues of quality and ethics in qualitative research. Chapters 5 and 6 are concerned with quantitative research, including an exploration of the two most popular types: the classic scientific experiment and the use of surveys to explore populations. Quantitative data analysis is discussed in Chapter 7, which includes some exercises for those who are wary of statistics. In Chapter 8, we pay particular attention to mixed methods in research, in acknowledgment of the shift away from strict adherence to one particular approach to one which places the research question central in determining the most appropriate research design. The role of research as a source for evidence which can be used to develop healthcare is also addressed. In Chapter 9 we take a ‘how to do it’ approach to preparing to write a research bid, writing a research proposal, and running a small-scale research project. We are of the belief that even though all nursing and midwifery courses cover research within the curriculum, often a theoretical approach is employed to the detriment of practical engagement in research. While it may not be feasible for undergraduate students to undertake empirical research for reasons of limited time and preclusive ethical issues, the consequences are that students may be well versed in the theory of research, but less so in how to carry it out. Dissertations are often library-based knowledge reviews, which compounds the problem. In essence, what we have is a perpetuation of the theory–practice gap. In
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