Florence Nightingale once said, "Unless we are making progress in our nursing every year, every month, every week, take my word for it, we are going back."1(p1) Her words resonate today as we find ourselves at the halfway point of the Year of the Nurse-the American Nurses Association's (ANA) 12-month celebration to recognize nurses' invaluable contributions to healthcare and raise the status of nursing. After a whirlwind Nurses Month, which included a 200th birthday tribute to the founder of modern nursing, where do we go from here? To keep moving forward, organizations must find ways to stay relevant in 3 key areas: practice excellence, leadership opportunities, and nursing innovation.
In Nightingale's Footsteps
Florence Nightingale's contributions ranged far beyond basic nursing to encompass healthcare statistics, research, and evidence-based practice (EBP). She used written observations, numerical data, critical review, and analysis to move both care and the nursing profession forward. When she connected soldiers' high rates of infection and death with unclean environments during the Crimean War, this earliest example of EBP in action ultimately led to massive reforms in health, social, and workforce policies throughout Britain and the world.2,3
In today's value-based healthcare environment, a commitment to EBP is more important than ever. Promoting an attitude of inquiry that starts nurses thinking "Why am I doing it this way? Is there a more effective way?" leads to the safest and best practices for patients and the practice environment.
A culture of clinical inquiry is never static. In Magnet(R) organizations, a problem-solving approach to decision making evolves to incorporate the latest scientific evidence with the best available experiential evidence.4 Nurses are continuously educated about EBP, resources and infrastructures are routinely reassessed, and targets for research productivity are revised on a regular basis.
Raising Nursing's Voice
Effective use of an interpersonal tool, such as advocacy, enhances the care-giving environment. Florence Nightingale used advocacy early and often in the development of modern nursing.5 She did not hesitate to raise her voice for the profession and show her influence as a healthcare leader. The Year of the Nurse is a good time for nurses everywhere to commit to doing the same. Board service is a good place to start.
Nurses are a natural fit to serve on boards. They represent the biggest segment of the healthcare workforce, consistently rank as the nation's most trusted profession, and play a huge role on the frontlines of healthcare in our communities. But very few actually serve on boards today. The ANA Enterprise is part of the Nurses on Boards Coalition seeking to increase nurses' presence on corporate, health-related, and community boards.6 With its emphasis on shared governance, professional development, and nursing excellence, the Magnet environment is a perfect incubator for board service.
Inspiring Nursing Innovation
Innovations occur at all levels of healthcare and nurses can and should be at the forefront, just like Florence Nightingale, the 1st nurse innovator.
Nurses are natural problem-solvers. Where there is a nurse, there is an idea about how to make patient care safer, more convenient, or more comfortable. But budding innovators need the proper environment, and encouragement, to bring those ideas to life. To stay relevant in the realm of innovation, organizations must commit not just to the necessary structures and processes, but also an expectation of improvement, to always make change happen and drive excellence forward. The Magnet framework gives nurses the means, method, and opportunity to unleash their creative forces to advance patient care, make practices more effective, and improve safety and outcomes.
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