Striving for nursing excellence to strengthen nursing practice for the future

The practice of nursing continues in a state of change, with a number of issues challenging us as we strive for excellence. Nursing leaders must confront these on a daily basis and are passionate about and committed to continually strengthening nursing practice for the delivery of excellent patient care. The nursing workforce issues, nursing leadership challenges, focus on quality, safety and evidence based practice, decreasing health disparities and creating patient partnerships all must be addressed for us to succeed. Through exploring the interconnections of these issues, we can make a significant change in one to affect other areas. Challenges bring opportunities and we are seeing our hard work begin to make significant improvements. The work force is stabilizing, we are experimenting with ways to get staff excited about becoming nurse leaders, focusing on improving care through quality and safety initiatives, moving toward evidence based practice and achieving partnerships with patients other healthcare providers and our communities.