To determine what resources are available to community health nurses, a survey was conducted of 345 agencies in WICHE's 13 western state region (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming). Major findings were: (1) only two percent of responding agencies had a full-time nurse researcher, while 13 percent reported having a nurse involved in part-time research; (2) the presence of a nurse researcher is related to agency size as measured by the number of visits per year and to administrative staff; (3) research support services are difficult to obtain for many of the agencies; (4) seven percent of the agencies report having a nursing research section; (5) less than two percent of the agencies report having a budget designated for nursing research; (6) in spite of the lack of research support, there exists a very large interest in developing research, and the research atmosphere is generally rated as favorable; (7) there is a wide range of topics that respondents are interested in researching, and the greatest interest is in nursing care and the evaluation of its quality; and (8) the largest obstacle to implementing research is the lack of available funds. Results are not reported by individual state, but in narrated tabular and graphic form for the entire region. The questionnaire and a list of suggested research topics are appended. (Author/MSE)