Foreword: Advances in Contemporary Modeling of Clinical Nursing Care

This edition of Contemporary Nurse 'Advances in Contemporary Modeling of Clinical Nursing Care' is remarkable for a number of reasons, each of which we want to discuss briefly in this editorial. Firstly, the collection of work presented in this edition comes about as a result of a state-wide project to collect and analyse local nurse-initiated work that had been undertaken to improve patient care and/or nursing working conditions. The purpose of the project was not to impose innovation or change upon the nursing workforce of New South Wales (NSW), but rather to uncover the work that was already occurring. Most of these projects began their lives with no funding or assistance of any form and without any prompting from hospital management. They were initiated by clinical nurses in a desire to improve patient care or the working patterns and lives of the staff involved in patient care.