THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PROJECT-2000 IN THE COMMUNITY - A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON THE COMMUNITY NURSES ROLE

This paper considers some of the initiatives taken by community nurses in England in implementing Project 2000 placements. The data were obt ained during an English National Board funded study in two phases, The first phase involved a series of exploratory interviews, a postal que stionnaire survey, and semi-structured interviews with 15 managers. In phase two, one Project 2000 demonstration district was studied in dep th by means of interviews complemented by small-scale questionnaire st udies. Community nurses had confronted a number of difficulties in imp lementing Project 2000. Among the most serious of these were shortage of time, poor communication with the colleges of nursing and lack of p reparation. As a consequence, community nurses took what they saw as i ndependent approaches to students' placements. Many set their own aims and objectives for placements and produced written guidelines and tea ching plans for students. Many also asserted the importance of their r ole in the assessment of students' practical work.