ABOUT THIS BOOK For the last 40 years nursing research has been struggling to establish its theoretical roots and legitimate place within the wider arena of research in the health sciences. Overshadowed by the medical endeavour, both resources and support have been meagre. Initially this medical hegemony also restricted the range of research designs by favouring the quantitative approaches that have formed the backbone of much clinical research. However, despite these restrictions, nursing research has developed a particular diversity which matches the eclec ticism of the discipline itself....