Most of the existing models of nursing have been formulated by academic theorists rather than practising nurses. According to the literature, the template used by these theorists is their perception of what the essential elements 'nursing', 'health', 'person' and 'environment' are: the so-called 'metaparadigm' of professional nursing. However it is also generally accepted in the literature that all nurse practitioners have their own 'personal model' of nursing, invariably based upon the individual nurse's values and beliefs concerning the same elements! Within this study it was possible to enable 95 ward managers to make their views on the four elements explicit, thereby forming a basis for a practitioners' model of nursing.