British Columbia: improving retention and recruitment in smaller communities.

This pilot project involved the application, in Canada, of the innovative 80/20 staffing model to a hospital in a small rural setting. The model provides the voluntary participants with 20% of their salaried time off from direct patient care in order to pursue various types of professional development activities. The project, overseen by a steering committee, lasted from June 2009 to February 2010 and involved 14 nurses on the pediatric unit of Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, British Columbia.

The synergy professional practice model and its patient characteristics tool: a staff empowerment strategy.

Nurse leaders can positively influence practice environments through a number of empowerment strategies, among them professional practice models. These models encompass the philosophy, structures and processes that support nurses' control over their practice and their voice within healthcare organizations. Nurse-driven professional practice models can serve as a framework for collaborative decision-making among nursing and other staff.

Legacy Mentors: translating the wisdom of our senior nurses.

'Legacy Mentors' are nurses aged 55 or older with a wealth of knowledge and passion to share with other nurses. Finding ways to capture their wisdom, disseminate their expertise, and potentially retain them longer is critical. As part of an innovative Educator Pathway project in two health authorities in British Columbia, Canada, nurses with up to 40 years of experience proposed to share their wisdom and translate their expertise for the next generation of nurses.

The BC Educator Pathway Collaborative Framework: creating the foundation for nursing education capacity.

This paper describes the conceptual structure and organizational framework of the Educator Pathway Project (EPP), which is a unique collaborative capacity-building project creating infrastructure for integrating nursing practice learning and development throughout the service and education sectors in British Columbia. Since 2005, two major health authorities, two universities and the provincial nurses' bargaining association have been engaged in an intensive and dynamic partnership to conceptualize and fundamentally change intersectoral directions and possibilities. This unique initiative has required considerable investment and commitment among all partner organizations, resulting in a clear, shared vision of systemwide support of nursing.

Practice and academic nurse educators: finding common ground.

Two university-based schools of nursing and two healthcare regions, supported by a nurses' union, have formed an intersectoral collaboration to develop a practice educator curriculum. The curriculum is designed to increase educator capacity and practice-academic relationships. This article describes the preliminary groundwork among intersectoral partners.