Research into school nursing: Some methodological questions

This paper explores a range of research methodology issues, all based in the social sciences, which emerged from an in-depth study of school nursing that was carried out in East Norfolk during 1996. The full report of the research itself (DeBell and Everett, 1997) presents the findings of that work. The paper here, in contrast, uses that research exercise as an opportunity to explore questions about research methodology and to suggest the philosophical roots of the methodological approaches used in this particular research. Such questions are usually only of secondary interest to the key findings in published work. Here, the findings are implied while the methodological issues are moved to the foreground. The underlying intention behind the paper is to reflect on some of the philosophical roots of the methodological approaches used in nursing research. In particular, the intention is to offer this specific research project as a subject for debate and discussion about research methodology itself. How do researchers design a project to answer a research question? What are the implications for research outcome, if any, of selecting one set of approaches rather than another? And, particularly, does nursing research need to establish its capability for philosophical reflection?