Coming in from the cold? An analysis of research proposals submitted by the Nursing Section at ScHARRI, 1994-1997

Abstract

The Nursing Section at SCHARR was established in 1994 as one of six groups that constituted the Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research (SCHARR). Based at the University of Sheffield, SCHARR was established as a response to the imperatives outlined in NHS Research and Development Strategy documentation for multidisciplinary health services research (HSR). The Nursing Section at SCHARR has always been fully supportive of such principles and over the past three years has worked with many different health-care researchers to maximise the nursing contribution to health services research. This paper analyses the features of 50 proposals made by the Nursing Section to funding bodies since 1994. Approximately half (52%, n=26) of all bids were successful and led to a total of nurse-related research grants worth 2.7 million pounds. Projects were significantly more likely to be funded if the method proposed was qualitative (or a combination of methods) or the lead researcher was a nurse. However, research was no more likely to be funded if a medical colleague was named as a collaborator, a statistician or health economist was involved in the bid, there were more than three named collaborators on the proposal, or the bid came from more than one university. The implications of these results are discussed in the context of recent critical commentaries on the topic of nurses'supposed relative disadvantage in obtaining funds for multidisciplinary health services research.