Clinical governance and the district nurse

The NHS guidance document 'First Class Service' (1998) regards clinical governance as a central plank of health service that develops, delivers and monitors the standards of health care. Thus working in conjunction with the principle of lifelong learning and the necessity for professional self-regulation, clinical governance is seen as the most crucial change in professional culture for many years in the NHS - a change that district nurses accept as a way forward for overall health care provision; in continuing professional development, evidence-based practice, complaints, risk management, and clinical audit. The purpose of this article from the literature reviewed is therefore to discuss the virtues of clinical governance as a way forward for health care by explicitly looking at the role of the district nurses within clinical governance in primary health care in relation to the local population. It will focus on the meaning of clinical governance and its requirement by district nurses. The article will also demonstrate how effective self-regulation and continuing professional development as advocated by clinical governance can help these nurses to bring about quality improvement activities (evidence based practice, complaints and risk management, and clinical audit), to address a range of performances. It will conclude and give recommendations for the future.