This thesis concerns a research project into client-centred care. Client-centred care is considered in this thesis as an umbrella concept, encompassing several care concepts such as demand-oriented care, emotion-oriented care and demand-led care. The context is the primary process of home care delivered by nurses and auxiliary nurses (subsequently called nurses) to chronically ill clients. Several reports have highlighted the need for development of competencies in professionals with respect to client-centred care. What client-centred care in the context of the primary process of home care for chronically ill clients encompasses, however, is not completely clear. Confusion exists about both the meaning and the application of client-centred care, which is to the detriment of the successful introduction of client-centred care in practice. This thesis consists of three parts. Part I (chapters 2-4) explores and describes the visions of clients and nurses on client-centred care and on competencies required in nurses for client-centredcare. Part II (chapter 5) concerns the development of a learning programme aimed at development of competencies for client-centred care in nurses. In part III (chapters 6-8) the impact of the learning programme is evaluated, on the learning processes of the nurses, on competencies in nurses and on client-centredness perceived by the client. Moreover, enabling and constraining factors with respect to the implementation of client-centred care are discussed. This part also includes the development and testing of the measurement instruments applied in the evaluation study.