Implementation of a national nursing standards program

At an annual nursing management conference of a multisystem hospital management firm, nursing executives expressed a need for developing nursing care standards. Because many of the hospitals were small or rural, they lacked some of the resources needed to develop such a program individually. Pooling resources so that all could benefit was an innovative and sensible approach. The authors describe the project that resulted in the development of a nation-wide standards program involving nearly 50 hospitals.