ABSTRACT
This chapter explores that the development of management has been concerted in the NHS. The chapter describes that nurses have found it particularly difficult to accommodate to these changes, both at the centre in terms of creating a coherent policy for the occupation, and among the workforce which has, without appropriate leadership, failed to develop effective and practical responses. The provision of nursing is a very large component of the costs associated with the practical delivery of hospital care. The new management does not attempt to redesign the job of the nurse or otherwise directly affect the traditional organisation of nursing work. Management exerts control by circumscribing the professional autonomy of nurses - rather than by directly attacking it at its core. Much that is needed to understand the impact of new NHS management on the experience of the nurse has now been set out.
