Practice Development: A Framework Toward Modernizing Health Care in the United States and the United Kingdom and a Means Toward Building International Communities of Learning and Practice

Abstract

U.S. and U.K. governments and health care organizations are pressured to provide innovative, equitable, and quality patient-focused, evidence-based care that meets the needs of contemporary populations within existing resources. This requires new ways of working and thinking so clients, their families, and health care providers become an integrated and accountable community. This article addresses practice development as a framework that facilitates development of communities of practice and learning while acknowledging the inherent complexity and messiness. It examines how U.S. and U.K. community and acute services have adopted the framework to provide evidence-based, innovative ways of working and explains practitioners' experiences meeting the needs of clients and working in partnership and across boundaries. In doing so, practitioners have taken leadership roles, rewritten rules, and shifted the balance of power from professionals to clients while being fully accountable. The article discusses implications for future cross-cultural working partnerships and alliance building.