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There is widespread discussion at the present time of participation--allowing members of an organization to exert an influence on the processes of decision-making. The National Health Service is not isolated from this debate and already a number of experiments have been carried out at various levels of the service to allow a wider range of opinion to influence decisions than hitherto. This paper reports on a study the author carried out into one such exercise, designed to assist a Health Board reach decisions about the long-term pattern of health care in its area. Nurses, paramedical staff and local authority staff, as well as doctors, were appointed to a series of programme planning committees to advise the Health Board on issues of long-term policy. After 2 years of operation, a study was carried out into the operation of the committees and the lessons drawn from the experience should be relevant to actual and potential members of any consultative or decision-making body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is considerable evidence to suggest that despite the availability of free medical services under the British National Health Service, there remains a clear social class bias in accessibility to a wide range of health care services. The literature on social class and the use of health services is examined and it is suggested that the greatest inequalities are to be found in the uses of preventive services. In the second half of the paper, some tentative proposals, which might have to reduce existing patterns of inequality, are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on the nursing lecture delivered on the occasion of the Royal College of Nursing's Diamond Jubilee Year Annual General Meeting, 24 November 1976. The history of the first sixty years of the college is recorded and discussed and its national and international contributions to the nursing profession and the art and science of nursing are documented. The College's pioneering role in nursing research and post-basic nursing education are also considered as are its influences on the development of the National Health Service and its significant role in representing nurses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the author, who is a member of the Royal College of Nursing of the United Kingdom (Ren) Council, discusses the functional and dysfunctional aspects of organizational behaviour and applies this discussion to the organizational problems of the Ren, the main professional organization of nurses in the United Kingdom. In particular, three concepts are considered in some detail: the concepts of oligarchy, elitism and plurality of goals. It is argued that problems which are ignored do not disappear and that dysfunctions which are by definition latent must be made manifest before they can be remedied. The existence of opposition, it is further argued, is essential to keep democracy alive, to buffer oligarchy and to promote change essential for the organization's survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflects on the 50th anniversary of the creation of the British National Health Service (NHS) in July 1998. Thoughts on changes in nursing care from the 1940's to the 1990's; The author's experience as a nurse treating tuberculosis patients in the 1950's; Progress in nursing scholarship; Quality of papers submitted to the 'Journal of Advanced Nursing.'