Community infection control nurse, South and East Belfast Health and Social ServicesTrust, Knockbracken Health Care Park, Belfast BT8 8BH xploration of the term 'practice development' is required for the discipline of infection control nursing. Improved understanding of the term would allow practitioners to approach practice development in a more constructive and measurable fashion. A concept analysis based on the model of Walker and Avant is therefore presented. The analysis includes the definition of the term 'practice development' and discussion of how it is presented in the literature. Illustrative cases are used to achieve clarification of the concept, culminating in identification of the empirical referents, these being: (1) identified patient need and (2) a change in nursing practice and demonstrably improved care.
E
AbstractDouble-blind peer reviewed paper