How to make professional practice models work

Professional practice models and shared governance have had much attention recently. They have been credited with being the answer to nurse retention, advancing the nursing profession, expanding nursing roles, and increasing autonomy for practice and work life. This article describes strategies for implementing and maintaining a professional practice model. Organizational support, nurse manager role change, unit readiness, salaried compensation, and incentives are areas that must be assessed before implementing a model. The models described are unit based and use the concepts of shared governance and group practice.