The status of nursing research in the Republic of South Africa: past and present perspectives.

Research never develops in a vacuum, hence a discussion of the status of research in a country cannot be limited to a single point of time, nor can it be properly understood without reference to issues and events which have influenced its past and present status. The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the development of nursing research in South Africa and of the current nursing research situation. Comment is made on current trends in nursing research, the nature and status of nursing research as well as specific issues and events that have affected development and current status of nursing research in South Africa. The development and nature of nursing research was traced through two major sources the National Nursing Research Journal "Curationis", and the National Nursing Research Register a publication of the South African Nursing Association, which provides abstracts of nursing research completed and underway in th is country . This inform ation was supplem ented by several research publications and papers.