An action research project to implement personal development plans into a community specialist practice programme

This paper sets out to explore the implementation of Personal Development Planning both in university and professional practice settings for community health nurses, as an action research project. This was achieved through a series of cycles of implementation, review and modification using a collaborative approach. The introduction of this process into the course design has enabled all those involved to record student progress in an effective manner. Our findings show that community health students and their assessors in practice have found the experience a very positive one and as a result some “tips for best practice” have been developed that will help take the process further.