ABSTRACT
At APU we have achieved so much of which to be proud that it is difficult to accept that we are still only in the early stages of implementing the whole IBL curriculum. Indeed, we should not claim to have achieved much more than survival. Admittedly, the quality of our initial planning and development decisions and actions has been tested now in the fire of live operation and has not been found wanting. But it is apparent that much remains to be done and that planners and developers must regroup to prepare themselves – and the many others involved in delivering and using the IBL pre-registration nursing programme – for the move forward into the next stage of the IBL curriculum's development. For move forward we must, or we stand to lose everything we have gained so far. The enemies of progress – fear, sloth, apathy and pessimism – though we reduce them to shadows of their former selves by managing change effectively, never fade away entirely and whilst it is still in its infancy the IBL project remains especially vulnerable to such negative impulses. So, paradoxically, the safest way to defend what we have already achieved is to move forward, to keep up the rate of change, to maintain momentum.
