Nurse leadership in sustaining programmes of change

With a dearth of literature on sustaining new programmes in the NHS, a service evaluation was undertaken following the implementation of the Productive Ward (PW) programme in an acute hospital environment. It was hoped that areas would emerge that could help to sustain the programme following disbanding of the PW facilitation team. The service evaluation gathered data from 11 wards that were part of the PW programme. Data were collected on actual sustainability results, absenteeism over the 6 months prior to the sustainability score taken, changes to ward environments, changes to senior sister roles and attendance at the PW launch day or other PW activities. Themes from the literature and analysis of the data gathered were then developed into a discussion surrounding the factors that appeared to be conducive to sustaining this programme of change.Results indicate that change is difficult to sustain in au ever-changing environment. However, there appears to be a strong link between sustainability and the leadership skills and qualities of the ward sister.