title: Building on Wenger: communities of practice in nursing.
abstract: Communities of practice (CoPS) provide a potentially useful practice based framework for constructing work based collaborative learning and promoting engagement with local and professional groups and communities. In nursing, we have, increasingly, to manage and deploy new and existing knowledge, although CoPs are currently not widely used to do this. This paper debates the framework created by Wenger and reviews the role of the CoP as an innovative way for educators and practitioners to collaborate to develop and manage new knowledge and emerging practice.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Midwifery and Community Health, Glasgow Caledonian University, Cowcaddens Road, Glasgow, UK. n.andrew@gcal.ac.uk
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Andrew
authors.forename: Debbie
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tolson
authors.forename: Dorothy
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ferguson
mesh_terms: D003153:Community Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D004506:Education, Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations