Background: In contemporary health and social care services and systems, there is a critical need for nursing care that is agile in its delivery, integrated across sectors, responsive to complex need, and focused on prevention, self-care and wellbeing. Community nurses are at the centre of these services, working in and across a variety of complex systems that depend on the expertise they bring to individuals, communities and populations. However, ensuring this capability is brought to the forefront of quality frameworks is a challenge as care practices are often reduced to moments of interaction or intervention that are tangible and objectively measured. We know, though, that community nurses bring vital and wide-ranging expertise to the health of populations. The Queen’s Nursing Institute Scotland has re-established the Queen’s Nurse Development Programme to address these contemporary agendas and ensure the potential of expert community nursing is demonstrated and recognised.

Aim: To engage in a participatory evaluation of the experience of the nine-month development journey of the 2019 Queen’s Nurse Development Programme participants.

Methods: A Collaborative Critical Creative Inquiry (CCCI) methodology was used, operationalised through a five-phase inquiry process, informed by Theory U ‘presencing ’and its five movements for attending to and co-shaping reality to achieve presencing. Our embedded and embodied data-collection methods drew specifically on participants ’creative expressions, reflective diaries and journals, and project notes.

Findings: The results of each phase of inquiry informed subsequent phases, culminating in a final phase (synthesis) where key themes representing the findings from all phases were derived. These themes were self-growth, community and practical impacts.

Conclusion and implications for practice: The importance of slowing and stillness, linked to the spaces created for creative reflective learning and development has been significant in this programme. Being present to listen to self, and engage in self-care and self-growth is something the programme provides and that is highly valued. We would argue that if health systems are serious about the transformation of services and people, then these kinds of programmes are critical to success.

This article by Brendan McCormack, Clare Cable, Jane Cantrell, Alison Bunce, Jane Douglas, Julie Fitzpatrick, Nikki Forsyth, Jeanie Gallacher, Jen Grant, Lindsey Griffin, Christina Guinnane, Keri Hollis, Kirsten Kernaghan, Mary Kinninmonth, Fiona Mason, Gabriela Maxwell, Pauline McIntyre, Stephen Mullay, Gayle Ridge, Joanna Taylor, Margaret Wilkieson, Elaine Wilson and Debbie Wishart is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 License.