Start a community of practice through Action Learning: the nurse manager to support the changing health care practices

This paper is part of the trend of studies de ned as workplace studies which have the intent to focus the relationship between learning processes, communities of practice and organisational change processes. The eld of intervention is the health eld, in relation to nurse manager roles with particular attention to problem solving and communication skills among Operating Unit (OU) managers and repercussions on working practices. The study/intervention is triggered by some key questions emerging from the organisational requirements in health care contexts, such as: how to reshape coordination roles that are traditionally centred on executive management towards a proactive function that is motivating for the nursing team? How is it possible to promote a community of practice between managers, consolidating the sense of company belonging? How to design a managerial role such as nurse manager suitable for an organisation based on processes and not just tasks? The answers to these questions involve two plans of action; one of a training and advisory nature, the second centred on the logic of research.