Consultant nurses and their potential impact upon health care delivery.

The role of the consultant nurse should be fully accepted by medical and nursing staff in order to develop new ways of working, delivering cost-effective quality patient care and meeting the agenda set out in the NHS plan. The involvement of the medical staff in identifying need, ensuring appropriate funding and subsequent training, and developing consultant-nurse posts is vital to their success. Several different healthcare professionals have or can attain the competencies that historically were considered to be the private domain of another profession.