Review

Nursing’s navel gazing

Interpreting Professional Self-Regulation: A History of the UKCC
Celia Davies, Abigail Beach
Routledge, 2000

The amount of information packed into this book is incredible. The authors set out to detail the history of the UKCC and its development from the Briggs Committee in the early 1970s right up to the present day.

This committee was established in 1970 and published its findings in 1972. But it is fair to say that it was itself a response to pressures and uncertainties and had impacts upon structures and practice simply by existing, long before it reported.

Interpreting Professional Self-Regulation is very academic and some might find it difficult to read. But as a reference text to be used in the context of academic study it would be difficult to fault.

Above all, it maintains the focus of what it sets out to do. The UKCC’s core remit concerns itself with professional self-regulation. The massive upheavals and changes that resulted from the Briggs report have touched every aspect of our professional lives and the structures within which we operate. And yet, as the authors point out, the Briggs committee itself gave very little space to the issue of professional self regulation.

The authors tie their discussion together by examining the question of what lessons might be learnt from our experiences over the past 30 years, and how they might be applied or readjusted for the 21st century.

Having established the UKCC very clearly in its historical context, they remind us that the Central Council itself is part of the evolving story of professional nursing and, indeed, is set to be replaced shortly by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

It is reasonable to question whether or not we (or any profession) should be self-regulating, or whether we might try to devise other structures to safeguard the integrity of our professionalism. Not an ‘easy’ read, but thought-provoking stuff.