By 1999 intense debates on British nursing and nurse education were occurring at both governmental and professional levels. A new model of nurse education was to commence in September 2000, a new nurses Council was to be in place by 2001, and a major revision of the nursing role and its possible replacement was being suggested by academic thinkers. At the same time, serious concerns were being voiced about the quality of some nursing care. As the year 2000 arrived, there were many unanswered questions about the shape, ethos and future direction of the British nursing profession.

This book sets the historical, ethical, cultural and political contexts for the debate and develops a coherent analysis of the period of fundamental change in the nursing profession between 1980 and 2000. Parliamentary debates, professional and governmental reports, documents and studies, as well as opinions expressed in nursing and medical journals, illuminate this period of nursing.

The review sets out to be both comprehensive and systematic, and there are no intentional omissions. Comment is kept to a minimum in order to allow the evidence to speak for itself and so enable the reader make his or her own judgement on the evidence presented.