Engaging clinicians in change can be difficult because of the tension they experience between care delivery and ensuring efficient and effective processes are in place to assess, communicate, deliver and evaluate care. This pilot used a systematic, participatory process to engage clinicians in implementing standardised plan of care documentation for patients in three Haematology/Oncology Day Care Units in Victoria, Australia. An action research approach using plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycles tested small changes and their impact on clinicians. Data collection included: field notes, a project journal, informal conversational interviews and documentation audits. Analysis included descriptive statistics for the audits and thematic analysis for qualitative data. The nurse unit managers led the process, with chemotherapy day unit medical and nursing clinicians participating. Two of the three units piloted the documentation, with the other opting out until electronic records have been developed. The medical leadership in the two participating units varied from full support to little support, and engaging off-site consultants was a challenge. PDSA cycles identified issues such as availability of the ‘old’ documentation, document format and content issues, documents not being completed, lack of written evidence of patient consent, treatment plans not being scanned, and lack of computer access for nurses to check previous patient records and results. All these issues were resolved except for written evidence of patient consent, which is ongoing. The primary recommendation was to convene a working party to review the documentation and adopt it with agreed modifications. The nurse unit managers found themselves in a position to influence practice by leading their colleagues in piloting and evaluating new documentation. Conducting PDSA cycles provided an effective means of implementing change, by making data-driven decisions, at low risk and cost. The aim of standardised care plan documentation across the three sites was not achieved at this time and collaboration is ongoing.