Striving for Excellence in Nursing Education

Abstract

What do we mean when we use the word excellence? In general, excellence is striving to be the best one can be, not settling for the status quo. Nurse educators who strive for excellence question how things are done in their nursing programs. They look for new ways of thinking and doing and seek alternatives based on evidence. In nursing education, striving for excellence may begin with the individual, but achieving excellence is everyone's responsibility. It involves building a culture where transformation takes place through continuous growth, improvement, and understanding. Excellence is reflected in everything that we do at the National League for Nursing (NLN). Our mission is to promote excellence to build a strong and diverse workforce to advance the health of the nation. With integrity, diversity, and caring, excellence is recognized as an NLN core value, defined as co-creating and implementing transformative strategies with daring ingenuity. For me, this definition ignites a sense of excitement and risk taking, traits I believe all nurse educators and nursing programs should possess. In 2006, an NLN task force developed the Excellence in Nursing Education model to address the essential components needed to achieve and sustain excellence in nursing education: well-prepared faculty and administrators; student-centered, interactive, innovative programs and curricula; qualified students; evidence-based programs and teaching/evaluation methods; adequate, high quality resources; the recognition of expertise; and clear program standards and hallmarks that raise expectations. This model is increasingly relevant. It is intended to stimulate our thinking about the extreme complexity of the nursing education enterprise. (A visual representation of the model can be found at www.nln.org/recognitionprograms/model/index.htm.) The NLN Hallmarks of Excellence in Nursing Education build from the excellence model. These are characteristics that define levels of outstanding performance or service and challenge nursing programs to continually strive toward the achievement of higher levels of effectiveness. Nursing programs use the hallmarks to stimulate discussion among faculty regarding the concept of excellence and how to go about achieving excellence in nursing education. For many nursing programs, these discussions lead to the decision to apply for designation as an NLN Center of Excellence. (The COE program, now in its 10th year, is now accepting applications through October 15. …