Community nurses take on the task of selling themselves.

Nurses are increasingly called upon to promote and justify their services within a market-driven NHS. If purchasers fail to understand the complexity of nursing, a reductionist approach--involving purchasing of only minimal nursing tasks--may result. This article uses a case study approach to illustrate the considerable scope of community nursing practice. It concludes that nurses need to become bicultural, developing the ability to communicate nurturing and healing values in a way that can be understood in the increasingly commercial NHS context.