Integrated care nursing in Canterbury, New Zealand.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to outline how nursing has contributed to the development of integrated care in an internationally recognised centre of excellence (Timmins and Ham, 2013). Design/methodology/approach – During a three-week travel scholarship the author undertook interviews, focus groups and observation and has reflected on this through three themes. These are: system working, nursing leadership and examples of integrated care in action. Findings – Elements of the Canterbury approach could have implications for other health care systems, e.g. New Care Models within England. Time was spent on developing the vision, involving many staff. Stability in the senior leadership team allowed decisions to be made in a collective, transformational way. Nurse leadership authenticity meant nursing staff saw integrated decision making being role modelled at a senior level and this appeared to empower them to operate in a similar way. Time was invested in redesign. Creating a positive culture where innovation was tried, without staff feeling the risks and challenges would not be supported by their leaders. Originality/value – This system worked most effectively where there was cohesion between health and social care, and strong relationships developed between leaders and staff working for different providers. The reflection includes practice examples of integrated care services in action. There is potential to inform integrated care developments within other health and social care systems, e.g. Vanguards within England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]