Education for excellence in professional nursing practice.

Abstract

returned from participating in the 43rd Biennial Convention of the global Nursing Society, Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI). With more than 2500 nurses from education, practice and research and from all parts of the globe, it was inspirational. The focus was on scholarship, on networking with our colleagues from around the world, and on learning from each other. I particularly noted the different cultural approaches to nursing practice and education. The US nurses are in awe of the UK’s ‘allgraduate’ intakes of students onto programmes leading to professional registration. And while they recognise that they are a long way themselves from achieving this, they do recognise how far they have developed, and are keen to celebrate their success. Some were particularly proud of their institution’s achievement of Magnet status and increasingly this is something being considered by nurses and hospitals in the UK. Introduced in the 1990s in the USA at a time of a national nursing shortage, Magnet recognises the quality of patient care and focuses on recognising ‘nursing excellence and innovations in professional nursing practice’ (American Nurses Credentialling Center, 2015). Magnet measures five ‘components’: transformational leadership, structural empowerment, exemplary professional practice, new knowledge, innovation and improvements, and empirical quality results. Magnet status has grown in popularity, with more than 400 accredited Education for excellence in professional nursing practice