Professional Accountability

Every nurse has the opportunity to make a positive impact on the profession through day-to-day advocacy for nurses and the nursing profession. In this article the author defines advocacy; describes advocacy skills every nurse can employ to advocate for a safe and healthy work environment; and explains how nurses can advocate for nursing as part of their daily activity whether they are point-of-care nurses, nurse managers, or nurse educators.

This literature synthesis strengthens our understanding of the elements that influence staff mix decision-making, including patient, provider and organizational factors. In addition, it provides further evidence to support the evaluation framework (CNA et al., 2005) that is broadly structured using those three components. While some progress has been made toward the development and implementation of tools and processes to inform staff mix decision-making, substantial gaps in this area remain.

Background: The International Council of Nurses (ICN) and its member National Nurses Associations have for some time recognized the need and potential for a global level leadership development opportunity for senior and executive level nurses. Through ICN’s international health policy influencing activities and experience in the delivery of national and national association leadership development programmes, the need for more senior level global leadership development was increasingly evident.

The aims of this paper are to present the findings from a discursive analysis of key issues associated with providing excellence in nursing care; and to provide an exemplar framework to support excellence in nursing care and describe the potential benefits when excellence in nursing care occurs.