Amplifying nursing's voice through a staff-management partnership

Recognizing that there is a strong need to improve nurses' work environments and knowing that autonomy and control over practice are key factors, the use of staff nurse and nurse executive partnership has proved a successful approach to fostering these characteristics. Development of the NPC has enabled us to achieve many favorable outcomes with regard to the nursing practice environment in our organization. The achievement of these outcomes within a collective bargaining environment necessitates a close partnership between nursing leadership and staff, which the NPC standardizes and formalizes. Staff members have verbalized their sense of ownership of the processes implemented, and nursing leadership feels confident that decisions and policies reflect staff input.