<p>I have a problem that confuses my users, being that although an item is highlighted (by the hover style) when the user mouses over it, they have to mouse over the actual item text, sometimes quite small compared to the item.  Is there a way to make the whole item clickable?</p>

Add some padding to the A element? Or if it's in a menu contained within a block-level element, make the A display as block too:
```
```
a {
  display: block;
  width: 100%;
}
```
```