Project 2000: a new preparation for practice--has policy been realized? Part I

Project 2000 was established in the UK in 1984. The project report, published 2 years later, embraced the whole of the educational system for nursing, midwifery and health visiting. It is useful, 10 years on, to note what actually happened in what became an enormous undertaking and the biggest ever change in nursing, midwifery and health visiting training. But how well were policy formulation and implementation planned? Has the policy process been successful? What are the outcomes to date? This policy review chronicles policy initiation and formulation, decisions within the political system and policy outputs, implementation and outcomes in the context of the environment, using a combination of two policy models as the guiding framework. The focus is on implementation in England. The extent to which the original proposals in the project report have been realized is identified, together with policy changes and additions which occurred during the policy process. This macro-review of the whole of the policy process avoids the common faults of separating policy initiation from its implementation, or policy content from policy process. The record will enable past actions and events to be taken into account in the context of future plans for the 21st century.