Sue Pembrey was author of the thesis ‘The Ward Sister-Key to Nursing’ which was first published as a book in 1980. It was one of a series of research papers published around this time focusing on the role of the ward sister. I have chosen to review Pembrey’s work for three reasons:

• Her work had a strong influence on me and how I ran my ward in the late 90s. Her work shaped my thinking on how to organise nursing care, manage, lead and educate a team of nurses and assistants so that we could provide the best possible patient centred care we could provide.
• I referred to Pembrey’s work in my own unpublished research for my MSc, learning from both her research methodology and outcomes. I carried out a smaller but methologically similar study with my peer group of ward sisters to further develop my thinking on patient centred care.
• Most importantly I have reviewed Pembrey’s work as I wish to discuss its relevance to practice today. I believe the ward sister role/team leader role is fundamental to the running of our health service and to ensure that patients and their families have a good clinical outcome where possible and a good experience of care. Sue Pembrey’s research reaffirms my belief and recent high profile reports such as Francis (2013) highlights the crucial role ward sisters still have.

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This article by Charlotte McArdle is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 License.