Reviewing the nurse-patient partnership

One of the vital components of contemporary professional nursing is the idea of nurses working in 'partnership' with patients. In an effort to establish a framework for examining the concept of partnership and how this is viewed and utilised by the profession, a formal review of the literature relevant to this area was undertaken. British and overseas journals and also textbooks of nursing from the UK and the USA were reviewed. The results of the review are discussed in an effort to offer some clarity to this somewhat complex concept.