Background and Objective: The recommendations of international organizations require to start training for research in health care from the basic training. In Bulgaria, the Ordinance on the Unified State Requirements for the acquisition of Bachelor degree in Nursing and Midwifery and Master degree in Management of Health Care (2006) do not include mandatory disciplines for acquiring specific knowledge and skills for research. The aim of the study was to find out how nurses and midwives evaluate their research preparation and their basic needs. Methods: Within a more complex study on research in nursing and midwifery, practitioners in 8 hospitals, educators and fourth-year students in 6 universities were surveyed through an anonymous self-administered questionnaire. Out of a total of 1 097 distributed questionnaires, 78.9% responded, with the highest rate among students (85.2%), followed by practitioners (79.3%) and educators (77.2). Data processing was performed by SPSS v.24 using descriptive statistics and comparative analysis. The accepted level of significance was p<0.05. Results: Statistically significant differences were found in all three groups regarding their self-assessment of confidence to undertake specific research activities (P<0.05). The proportion of practitioners who definitely do not feel prepared for research was 38.9%. Among the trainees, there was a slight predominance of those who feel confident (57.8%). The highest proportion of confidence in their preparation for research was among educators (62.0%) for which research is an obligatory element of their position. In all three groups, the largest proportion of persons supported the opinion that the acquisition of basic competencies for research should start in basic education and should be upgraded during the Bachelor and Master programs in the specialty “Health Care Management”. Conclusions: There is a necessity to introduce research training into basic nursing and midwifery education, justified by regulatory requirements and their poor assessment of research skills.