Developing a nurse-led clinic using transformational leadership.

Nurses are at the forefront of implementing and managing change, given constantly changing healthcare services and the increase in demand for health care. Therefore, it is important to identify the best style of leadership to engage nurses in implementing service-led improvements. This article explores the effects of transformational leadership in bringing about service-led improvements in health care, using the example of setting up a nurse-led acupuncture clinic to optimise the care of patients with chronic pain.

Academic skills: using literature to support your discussion.

A good academic piece of work aims to locate itself within the available body of knowledge on the subject area. Knowledge can come from a range of different sources, each contributing to the body of knowledge on the subject. The final article in this three-part series discusses the importance of appraising and making sense of literature when considering the knowledge relating to a particular subject area.

Community matrons improve health: patients' perspectives.

Community matrons are integral to the government's plans to reduce hospital bed-use by people with long-term conditions. Community matrons have been given the role of case managing the very high intensity users in an attempt to reduce emergency bed days through preventing admissions and early discharge and through working closely with their patients to develop personalized plans of care and to support and encourage patients to take more control of their condition. To date there has been little research from the patients' perspective into whether community matrons are achieving their aim.

An evaluation of a community matron service from the patients' perspective.

Community matrons are a relatively new government initiative aimed at case managing people with long-term conditions to reduce the number of emergency bed days used in hospitals. Although there have been extensive evaluations of similar case management projects, to date there has been little evaluation of the community matron's role and the perceptions patients have of this new service. One of the main Government agendas for care is to deliver a high quality service driven by the needs of the service users (DH, 2000).