Practice development: what is it and why should we be doing it?

It is increasingly fashionable in nursing to refer to practice development (PD), a concept that is poorly defined, little questioned and seems to have an evangelical following, especially in the UK and Australia. But what exactly is it and is it a legitimate academic activity? According to the website of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in the UK, PD is “… an approach that helps you, your team and organisation to provide care that patients feel is right for them”. There is no indication on this site as to whether this statement is based on opinion or on actual research findings. There are questions about the claims of this activity to contribute to patient care and improve patient outcomes in a sustainable way (Atsalos et al., 2007 C. Atsalos, L. O’Brien and D. Jackson, Against the odds: experiences of nurse leaders in Clinical Development Units (Nursing) in Australia, Journal of Advanced Nursing 58 (2007), pp. 576–584. Full Text via CrossRef | View Record in Scopus | Cited By in Scopus (2)Atsalos et al., 2007). Another issue that deserves professional attention is the question of how this vague and ill defined activity links with the multidisciplinary team, the shared language used by the team and the explicit understanding of nursing’s contribution to patient care. Copyright © 2008 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.