Working toward clinical nursing excellence

The professional nursing literature offers limited explication of the meaning of clinical nursing excellence, thus few strategies to facilitate and maintain excellence in practice. The purpose of this paper is to describe a workshop that was designed to give definition and practice directions for the concept of "clinical nursing excellence". Workshop participants were the nursing leaders of a large Canadian university teaching hospital. The program structure was presented by a working committee from within that group and the content was provided by those in attendance. The objectives for this two-day workshop were: 1. To identify characteristics of clinical nursing excellence within the organization. 2. To describe programs, activities, and functions (current and future) that are consistent with clinical nursing excellence. 3. To identify those factors inhibiting and supporting clinical nursing excellence within the institution. 4. To promote networking and communication between nursing leaders within the Nursing Department. 5. To promote Departmental/Directorate development of a plan for further enhancement of clinical nursing excellence. This cooperative workshop was deemed a worthwhile endeavour for all participants. Nurse administrators may find the process and or products of this workshop useful for identifying departmental strategies to enhance nursing practice.