Nursing development units: their structure and orientation

This paper provides background material about the Department of Health funded Nursing Development Units (NDUs), specifically their biographical and contextual characteristics, their aims and values, and their organization of work and resources acquired. The data were drawn from questionnaires to clinical leaders and from documentation. The findings are summarized under five questions which address the NDUs' values and aims, their organization of work, multiprofessional working, activeness in acquiring resources and support and the effect of the host organization. Taken as a whole, the aims match the vision of the ideal NDU specified by the pioneers of the NDU movement, and most clinical leaders subscribed to primary nursing as their preferred mode of organizing nursing work. Multiprofessional working was a common feature and there was considerable evidence of equality in team membership status. A small number of NDUs had been awarded grants for research and most were successful in generating income from conferences. Nearly all had links with an academic institution. NDUs that had the support of their Trust's management were able to market their services successfully. Our findings indicate that many NDUs have made good progress but their clinical leaders are the first to admit that there is much more to be done.