title: Managing to care? the nurse director's dilemma.
abstract: When Harriet sergeant of the Centre for Policy Studies published her three-part examination of management in the NHS ( 2003 ), she painted a depressing yet sadly accurate picture of senior and middle managers chasing centrally decided targets and objectives while having little impact on the fundamental patient experience: an NHS in which there is a huge gap between government claims of progress in reforms and the experiences of patients.