A process for developing a principle-centred district nursing service philosophy.

While it is well known that team vision and values statements in nursing can promote person-centred care, practitioner role clarity and empowerment, and service effectiveness, especially during times of change, their use in district nursing is limited. Accepted practice is to formulate vision and values statements 'from the top', and then seek buy-in from other staff groups, however, this inhibits practitioner engagement. This paper describes the use of group facilitation, based on principle-centred leadership practices, to engage practitioners in all the creative aspects of developing a values statement. Increasing practitioner engagement would be expected to provide the above benefits by improving communication with service-users and other key stakeholders and by motivating performance evaluation and improvement.