Abstract :
Hospital nurses come to work, starting their day with a smile and looking forward to providing high-quality care for their patients.
The nurses are motivated to excel in the care they deliver because they have the resources they need and the ability to make decisions about the care of their patients.
Staffing levels are ample, filled with the appropriate numbers and types of well-educated, highly dedicated staff, and nurses have strong and collegial professional relationships with others on the care team and in the organization.
At the end of the day, the nurses leave the workplace with a high level of satisfaction about the care they delivered and their jobs and careers because they enjoy their work, they enjoy the people with whom they work, and—bottom line—they feel they have made a difference in the lives of those for whom they have provided care.
When they meet their friends and acquaintances, they tell them how much they love their jobs, and they encourage them to enter nursing. When colleagues tell them about nursing opportunities elsewhere they decline, citing their happiness with their jobs and their perceptions of fair compensation, advancement opportunities, and strong support from their organizational leadership.
These nurses work for many years to come at this hospital; the hospital invests in patient care, staff development, new technologies, and organizational innovations.
The hospital in turn benefits by retaining a highly qualified and motivated nursing staff; patients and families consistently report high levels of satisfaction with their care; the hospital is held as an example of a high performing organization that consistently delivers high quality (and safe) patient care; the community, patients, and providers consider this their hospital of choice.
