"If Only" ... or the Ubiquitous "They"
Abstract
Editorial"If Only" ... or the Ubiquitous "They" SAGE Publications, Inc.1995DOI: 10.1177/107839039500100501 Fact one: Most nurses are both keen and astute -~- observers of the milieu and the structure of their work environment. Fact two: Most of the work environments in health care systems currently are in enormous flux, for example, restructuring, rightsizing, downsizing, and workplace redesigning. These two facts combine to make a most powerful vortex for the possibility of real change in the delivery of health care services. The tenets of crisis theory and systems theory propose that when structures and processes are in crisis they are also most open to change. For the change to be growth producing and value enhancing it should be based on considerable data about what is in the system versus what is desired. Nurses have systematically and regularly made these kinds of observations about the milieu in which they work and in which their patients are receiving care. However, what often happens is the observations are discounted, ignored, or perhaps even outright rejected by the "ubiquitous they." " Listen to yourself and to your coworkers and hear the phrases that begin "if only they would," "if only they know about," "if