Summary•Problems surrounding the relationship between the theory and practice of nursing have been pervasive for decades. Whilst, traditionally, concerns have been mainly expressed by nurse educators, and solutions offered from an educational perspective, increasingly the issues are seen as those of practitioners and managers as well, and as broader than the integration of theory and practice in the education of nurses.•Many of the attempts to bring theory and practice together by the development of an educationally driven model, or by the introduction of new roles into an existing system have been problematic, leading to the desire for a more radical proposition.•The development of lecturer practitioners, who aim ‘to identify and maintain the standards of practice and policies in a defined clinical area, and to prepare and contribute to the educational programme of students in relation to the theory and practice of nursing in that unit’ (Vaughan, 1987), offers one such approach.•This article reviews the main empirical literature in relation to issues of theory and practice, as well as reporting on some preliminary findings from a research project aimed at studying the implementation and development of lecturer practitioner roles in one healt
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