Continuing education for district nurses

This paper describes a co-operative venture between Essex Institute of Higher Education and Southend Health Authority designed to meet the continuing education needs of district nurses by allowing them to analyse and develop their role in relation to the realism of service goals and resources. It considers briefly the background to the project and the conclusions reached by the initial working group that provided the impetus. It gives details of the programme for district nurses and of the evaluation of the course. The positive aspects of combining the resources of the health authority and of higher education - the expertise of the manager and of the teacher - are highlighted. The overall success of the project is evidenced by the further developments described in the conclusion viz the move towards Cumberlege style management and the establishment of nine district nurse co-ordinator posts across the authority.