Dictionary.com defines pursuit as: the act of pursuing; an effort to secure or attain a goal; a quest; and any occupation, pastime, or the like in which a person is engaged regularly or customarily. They define excellence as the fact or state of excelling. The pursuit of excellence in nursing is indeed a quest that is accomplished by thoughtfully looking at ones environment and then strategically thinking about how to make a positive difference. If you are in a nursing department with high nursing turnover, making a difference might entail starting a Welcome Committee and developing an orientation tool for new staff.

You may also want to consider starting an Engagement Committee to plan activities to enhance staff satisfaction and staff morale. If you work in a nursing department in which most of your new hires are graduate nurses, you may want to start a preceptor committee to better understand the needs of your preceptors and to develop an orientation tool specifically tailored to the needs of new nurses. If you can never find items in your supply rooms, consider starting a team comprised of nurses who like to organize. Empower them as front-end users to redo the supply area in a more user friendly manner. Now, I am not saying to remodel the supply room, rather I am saying to thoughtfully look at where items are stored in your supply room and then rearrange it to fit the work of your nursing division.

If your nursing division is lucky enough to have an established nursing staff, consider setting a goal to increase the number of medical-surgical nurses who are certified medical-surgical registered nurses (CMSRN®). Recently, I had the opportunity to present a hospital in Illinois with the The AMSN PRISM Award®. While there, I was informed that a staggering 77% of the nurses on the unit receiving the AMSN PRISM Award were certified!

How did that happen?

The nurses and their leadership team decided to pursue excellence in medical-surgical nursing through specialty nursing certification. They found nurses to champion specialty nursing certification. You may want to consider becoming a nursing champion and finding other nursing champions. Consider starting a study group, and raise awareness of the opportunities provided by your facility for specialty nursing certification. Take the time to thoughtfully look at your environment, look at the opportunities for growth, and then begin your pursuit of excellence.