This study examines the changes in nursing care of elderly patients that have taken place since the early 1980s in the former geriatric unit which is now the Tameside nursing development unit. This NDU was one of the first to be established in Britain. In 1990 the Department of Health and King's Fund Centre facilitated the establishment of a two year research project to examine systematically the achievements of the Tameside NDU and to draw implications from its experience which could be applied in other nursing environments. The aims were: to describe the ways in which nurses perceived that patient care has changed in a Care of the Elderly Unit over a ten year period; and to examine the impact of these changes on the nursing staff who are working now in the NDU and the students allocated to the unit.