Nurse Leadership Development: A Qualitative Study of the Dutch Excellent Care Program

Box 1

Description of the Excellent Care Program.

	The Excellent Care Program is a model comprising three pillars (Figure 1): Each pillar addresses a number of aspects important to a positive nurses’ work environment (Figure 1) [14, 40]. All pillars can be measured by a validated questionnaire [60–63].
	The program starts with a baseline measurement of the healthcare organization. After receiving the outcome of the baseline measurements and recommendations, an organization develops an action plan for creating a positive nurses’ work environment. The organizations could use workshops, lectures, and interventions in various themes especially those developed by the Dutch Nurses Association. In addition, healthcare organizations develop their own interventions based on the outcomes to start working on different themes themselves. After 2-3 years, organizations often measure the effects of their developmental efforts. Bloemhof et al. [34] provide a nice example of the way an organization that took the ECP approach went about its work.
	The Dutch Nurses Association facilitates a network for participating organizations. Conferences and meetings are organized to share experiences with interventions and postbaseline measurements. An online platform ensures that ECP organizations can ask each other questions and share solutions. ECP organizations can also rely on the support of employees of the Dutch Nurses Association throughout the program.