Can nurses govern in a government agency?

A shared governance model was implemented within the nursing service of the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center in 1997. In 1999, a members of the Nursing Quality/Staff Education/Research Council examined facility nurses' perceptions of governance to determine the degree to which the model had be en implemented. Results of the study indicate that although imperatives at the organizational level were incompatible with three aspects of shared gov ernance, there were three shared governance dimensions pertaining to basic nursing practice that reached or surpassed governance thresholds. his study highlights the potential of nursing management innovation within highly bu reaucratic organizations.