Action learning in health care

Over the last few years, there appears to be growing evidence of action learning being used in the health service for a whole variety of purposes. The include clinical service development and patient involvement (Chivers, 2005; Attwwod, 2007), role larification and role development (Richardson et al., 2008), partnership working (Willis, 2006), service improvement (Pedler and Abbott, 2008a; 2008b), and leadership development (Blackler and Kennedy, 2006). This chapter focuses in the particular context of the U.K. National Health Service (NHS) for the simple reason that, at the time of writing, it appears to be at its most developed and widespread there.