Pathway to Excellence®: Creating Ideal Nursing Work Environments

Patricia Deyo, BSN, BA, RN

On TV, hospital heroes are usually physicians, rushing to a patient’s bedside whenever an alarm goes off. But in real life, nurses are the first responders to patient emergencies. When it’s you or a loved one in that hospital bed, you hope that your nurse is 100% focused.  

Burnout is a fact of life in nursing today, so healthcare organizations are looking for innovative ways to create work environments where nurses feel engaged and inspired. Research shows that these healthy work environments improve not only nurse satisfaction, but also patient safety, patient satisfaction, and quality of care.

So why isn’t everybody doing it? It may seem simple, but creating a positive work environment is challenging, especially in today’s complex healthcare climate. While many hospitals and healthcare organizations successfully implement some aspects, they fall short on others.

With this in mind, the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) established the Pathway to Excellence® Program to recognize healthcare facilities that create healthy work environments where nurses can flourish. To earn this mark of excellence, a hospital must show that it has incorporated specific standards into its day-to-day operations, including:

• A patient-centric, safe, and healthy work environment
• Abundant opportunities for nurses to expand and improve their skills
• A focus on collaboration, quality, and evidence-based practice 

This is good news for nurses, but it’s even better news for patients. High nurse satisfaction and retention directly impact quality of care. The Pathway credential tells consumers that a hospital’s quality and safety outcomes are second to none. It provides them with the ultimate benchmark when choosing a healthcare facility.

There are now 57 Pathway to Excellence designated hospitals in the United States, and the number continues to grow. Success in the acute care environment has spawned the Pathway to Excellence in Long Term Care™ Program, which recognizes the essential elements of an optimal work environment in skilled nursing facilities, nursing homes, and assisted living centers.

It’s the first program of its kind in the country and comes at a crucial time. As our population continues to age, quality long-term care is increasingly important to all of us. The Pathway designation reassures families that their loved ones will receive safe, high quality care in an environment of excellence from nurses [with long-term care expertise] who are focused, motivated, and fulfilled.