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Introduction: Nurses have been striving for decades for the development and acknowledgment of their working field as its independent scientific discipline. The dissertation introduces the development of education and state-of-the-art in the area of nurses and midwives information needs in Slovenia. Methods: The research comprises several clusters and consists of qualitative and quantitative paradigms. The stuctured questionnaire was sent to 500 randomly selected graduated nurses and midwives. The sample included 11,8 % of the population. The web metrics of the Slovenian Nursing Review from 16 January 2009 to 16 January 2010 is introduced, including the trend of borrowing between 2004 and 2010. Bibliometric analysis of the bibliographies and the results of the written interviews with nurses holding a PhD are presented in the last cluster. Results: The questionnaire was answered by the 31,8% (158) of the random sample, mainly females, holding a degree. It can be concluded there are statistically significant differences between the observed categories of education. The differences relate to: following novelties in health and midwifery care (p < 0,001), in the assessment grade of (nursing) research in general (p < 0,0001) and personal involvement in (nursing) research (p = 0,044). The results are in favour of nurses with higher level of education. The level of the identification of information sources is high, but their actual use much lower. The CINAHL database is accessed in a lower proportion (5,3%); 51,7% have never accessed the database.The website of the Slovenian Nursing Review has been visited by 39.030 visitors in three years (every visitor counted once only), i.e. 70.770 visits. The following libraries recorded the highest borrowing rates between 2004 and 2010: Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Ljubljana (3.765), Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Maribor (3.147), College of Nursing in Jesenice (331), Maribor University Library (217) and Central Medical Library (133). On the basis of the bibliometric analysis of the personal bibliographies and the results of the written interviews it can be concluded that nurses holding a PhD significantlly differ from nurses not holding a PhD: they carry our more research, publish more, use information sources for literature search, read professional and scientific literature and articles published in the Slovenian Nursing Review available on the web. Discussion: Five resarch hypotheses are confirmed. It was found out that the level of education significantly influences the motivation for research work, which is essential for the Slovenian health care to become a scientifically grounded discipline. Also, higher education has an important effect on the awareness of the importance of following professional and scientific literature, and thus novelties in the professional field. Slovenian nurses and midwives are aware of the available information sources, but use them rarely, which can be related to lower information literacy and the need for additional training and education in the field, and the need for support in publishing at home and abroad. Conclusions: The dissertation introduces and conceptualises a specifically designed web portal with information sources in support of research and clinical practice in health and midwifery care. Such aportal could also be used during training and/or education, during the preparation phase of the research work or article for publishing. Slovenian nurses shall have the possibility of vertical education in the field, up to PhD. The dropping trend of the Slovenian Nursing Review borrowing in libraries could be a reflection of the digital era and the consequence of the digitalization of the journal available on the internet. It is time the Slovenian Nursing Review becomes an access-free journal, which will offer support to a scientifically grounded discipline, and thus gain its reputation in Slovenia and abroad.