Creating national standards from the point of care

Every nurse leader is challenged to provide an infrastructure for patient care that facilitates the highest quality of patient care services, the adoption of innovative practices, and the satisfaction of caregivers. Nurses are expected to provide the best possible care to patients and their families in ways that are safe, respectful, timely, and appropriate, even if there is not a specific policy to support it-all within the scope of practice. The purpose of this article is to share an exemplar that illustrates an effective change dynamic as the framework for changing nursing practice. The exemplar describes a new approach for postmortem care that began with creative problem solving at the bedside and evolved to a nurse-led research study. Results from the study continue to be disseminated with the intention that the nursing intervention will become standard of care.