Catalogue description General Nursing Council for England and Wales: Research Unit

The Research Unit was set up jointly by the General Nursing Council (GNC) and the Ministry of Health to undertake research work on nurse education and to advise on planning and evaluation of experimental training schemes. It was funded by the ministry. A Joint Steering Committee was appointed to supervise the work of the unit, consisting of members of the council and the Ministry of Health and outside experts, and first met in October 1967. Staffing of the unit began in April 1968 and the first research report appeared in July. In 1971 the Joint Steering Committee changed its title to Research Advisory Committee.

The first director of the unit left in 1972 and in 1974 the committee was replaced by a small Research Steering Group. The second director of the unit died in the same year, but was not replaced.

In 1975 a chief scientist was appointed by the Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS) who, after a visit to the unit, recommended that funding should continue only if the unit were university based, maintaining a formal link with the GNC. In 1976 the council agreed that a new Nursing Education Research Unit should be established at Chelsea College, London University and a director was appointed in 1977. No GNC Research Unit staff were appointed to the new unit.

In 1977 the GNC Research Unit was closed but the final report was not published until 1978.