“From my perspective the clinician on the floor, they’re focused on the patient in front of them. They don’t have time to see anything else that’s around there, or even policy”. Within the limits of the health service structures (such as meeting schedules) the participants described being in charge of their own diaries (schedules) and as a result, had the Y-27632 cost flexibility to plan their own work and set priorities. “If you looked at someone who is clinically based, who took a patient load every day versus a CNC who doesn’t, then I would say that the clinically-based

patient load person tends to focus on achieving things for a shift versus the CNC who has a very collateral vision that sets up plans for futures and moves us forward as a service”. The metaphor of the ability to get the head up from the immediate demands

of allocated patient work and look into the future had good fit with the data. In this respect, the CNC role was described as unique; no other professional disciplines have such a role. Other roles within nursing and across disciplines were seen to tend to be demarcated based on clinical care, education or management and were restricted to practice dominated by those portfolios. The flexibility in the consultant role afforded the “glue” like role of crossing boundaries and acting as a “conduit” for communication within nursing MEK inhibitor and inter professionally. The flexibility and longer term big picture vision of the CNC role enabled clinically focused system work with a focus on remediation and rescue. Those CNCs with a consistent patient load discussed flexibility in scheduling both patients and clinics. The CNC role had both change agent and trouble shooter features across professional boundaries. I’d describe the role as sort of being like a conduit, a conduit for each of the services within the district, to link everyone”. While inter professional communication is common it was described as being particularly focused on individual patient episodes. The conversations enabled by the conduit-like nature of the CNC role were broader selleck products in focus, and whilst remaining clinically focused, were related to systems of care. Having the flexibility to

move through the system, “you have influence at various levels, so manage up, down, sideways and you can act quickly because you have the knowledge within the system”. This influence was built through dialog and the development of trust. The ‘head up’ nature of the role allowed not only questioning of efficiency and effectiveness of care and systems of care, but also brought together stakeholders across disciplines in a systematic exploration of issues lead by the CNC. The CNC was not only a conduit for interaction within the system but was also involved in the introduction and translation of information, including new policy and procedures to the system from state, national and international working groups. The conduit is kept patent through ongoing strategic and collaborative dialog.