Early parenting residential units provide a child and family health support and education service for parents experiencing parenting difficulties. An ongoing concern of nursing staff and management is whether the parenting knowledge and skills gained are translated into sustainable parenting practices after discharge. This paper explores the response to a post discharge telephone interview about parents' experience of nursing care during their residential stay and their parenting experience since discharge. A descriptive qualitative approach identified four themes in the parents' responses: greater confidence, greater knowledge about their babies, changing expectations of parenting and their infants, and sustainability of parenting skills.

A lack of consistent policy direction, revealed by a review of nursing and midwifery documentation, presented researchers with an opportunity to engage clinicians in the process of evidence based policy development. By utilising the framework informed by both practice development and the principles of evidence based practice, clinicians were taken through an education program and a series of activities to develop their skills in discerning how research evidence and other literature can inform policy development. The clinicians' involvement maximised their investment in the final policy. Clinicians synthesised all the evidence associated with nursing and midwifery documentation and produced a set of seven guiding principles that formed the basis of an area wide policy for nursing and midwifery documentation. The strength of this approach to policy development was that the clinician's experience ensured that the concerns of the clinicians were included in the policy. Difficulties in completing tasks outside meeting times were highlighted.