Nursing has changed radically over the last two decades and is continuing to do so. Some would say for the better others for the worse (Rushford and Ireland 1997). The purpose of this assignment is to offer a critical analysis of clinical governance as it applies to nursing and the effect it has had on nurses’ on going continuing educational needs. By the term critical analysis I do not mean that I shall attempt to discredit clinical governance, or claim that it is harmful to patients or staff. Instead, I will attempt to discern its nature in a rigorous way and examine how it has led to a change in the way professionals and patients in health care are conceptualised and how this has had an effect on the on going continuing education of nurses. The introduction of clinical governance has resulted in change not only in nursing practice but also in the subjectivity of nurses and their educational needs. Staff do appear to be embracing the notion of clinical governance, however there appears to be very few changes apparent at the level of patient care (Brown and Crawford 2001).
