title: Shared governance from concept to reality.
abstract: THE CONCEPT of shared governance, which originated in the USA in the 1970s, has recently been introduced into Britain ( Geoghegan and Farrington 1995 ). It developed as a means of allowing staff nurses to have greater control over their working environment (Totten and Scott 1993) and is widely recognised as having benefits in empowering practitioners from a variety of health care professions ( Porter O'Grady 1994 ). Several models of shared gov- ernance have been described in the literature (Porter-O'Grady 1994, Geoghegan and Farrington 1995), making it a broad philosophy which can be adapted to meet the needs of individual hospitals and health care trusts in the UK.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rapson
authors.affiliation: Bedford Hospital at the time of writing.|East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust.
authors.forename: Debra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Otte
authors.forename: Sharn
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Elton