About Pathway

Nurses operate on the front line of health care, dedicating their working lives to protecting, promoting, and improving health care for all. To do this to the best of their ability they need to operate in an environment that supports their own needs and promotes high standards.

The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) believes every nurse deserves to be working in such an environment. The Pathway to Excellence Program^® – the premier designation for healthy work environments – recognizes health care organizations that demonstrate a commitment to establishing the foundation of a healthy workplace for staff.

The ANCC Pathway to Excellence Framework depicts the six standards that are essential elements in developing a positive practice environment for nursing across a variety of healthcare settings including acute care and long-term care.

• Shared Decision-Making creates opportunities for direct care nurses to network, collaborate, share ideas, and be involved in decision-making.
• Leadership supports a shared governance environment by ensuring that leaders are accessible and that they facilitate collaborative decision-making. This standard also emphasizes leadership development, orientation, retention, accountability, and succession planning.
• Safety prioritizes both patient and nurse safety, and fosters a respectful workplace culture free of incivility, bullying, and violence.
• Quality is central to an organization's mission, vision, goals, and values, and is based on person- and family-centered care, evidence-based care, continuous improvement, and improving population health.
• Well-Being promotes a workplace culture of recognition for the contribution of nurses and the healthcare provider team. Additionally, this standard provides staff with support and resources to promote their physical and mental health.
• Professional Development ensures that nurses are competent to provide care and provides them with mentoring, support, and opportunities for lifelong learning.

Pathway Standards impact a range of factors that influence bottom-line results, such as employee turnover, job satisfaction and engagement, productivity and teamwork, nursing-sensitive quality indicators, errors and safety events, and patient satisfaction.

The opportunity to attain the Pathway designation – and potentially join the growing number of elite organizations that now hold both the Pathway and Magnet^® designations simultaneously – is available to domestic or international health care organization where nurses are employed.

The Pathway to Excellence in Long Term Care Program is a separate program that recognizes the essential elements of an ideal nursing practice environment in long term care.

Pathway to Excellence - Business Case