ABSTRACT
Previous chapters have explored the clinical role of the nurse and mapped working relationships between doctors and nurses through exposition of developments in clinical working environments.The clinical domain is but one arena in which nursing and medical staff interact.This chapter explores another area within which medicine and nursing operates, that of the service domain of health care practice.The term ‘service domain’ is used to describe any area relating to the management of clinical units, and of the clinical service. Such activity occurs not at the micro patient interface level,but at middle management level or the clinical unit-trust interface.At its most influential, this area can then extend to involvement in executive and national policy level decisions. It requires nurses, doctors and health service managers to make operational and strategic decisions about the delivery of the service, rather than be directly involved with patient management.This, therefore, offers a comparative area to explore the working relationships between doctors and nurses, who both work with managers in order to deliver the clinical service.
