Leadership
Nurses bring a unique perspective to health care, higher education, business and policy leadership. Yet at the moment, nurses are underrepresented as leaders in all industries.
When the experience and expertise of nurses is represented among health care, business, and policy leadership, consumers benefit. Especially for health care and related Boards of governance, the leadership of nurses translates into improved quality and safety. Governance and Board service benefits nurses, providing nurse leaders with additional opportunities to sharpen leadership skills, broaden perspectives and support the mission and vision of highly visible organizations. Additionally, having nurses in these leadership roles contributes to the retention of highly skilled nurses at all levels of health care organizations.
Increase the influence of nurses in high levels of health care, and policy decision making.
To address this issue, the Center is working with national and state stakeholders to educate the health care and business communities on the value of nurses in leadership positions and working with nursing leaders to prepare them for these leadership roles.
- In Virginia, Business, Health Care, Philanthropy and Community Leaders Join with Nurse Leaders for Collaboration in the Board Room
- Nurse Leader and Former Social Security Administration Head Shirley Chater on the Value of Nurses in the Boardroom
Profile nurses in leadership roles
The Center has begun a Profiles in Health Care Leadership series. The Nurses on Board articles are part of this series.
- Debra J. Barksdale hopes to encourage more of her colleagues to join her and other leaders working to transform the nation’s health care system. Barksdale has served in a variety of key roles, including as a board member of the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties and the Nursing Education Advisory Council for the National League for Nursing.
- Pamela Cipriano has technology on her mind. Whether the issue is the country’s nursing shortage or the recent health care reform legislation, this nurse leader sees the potential for greater efficiency, transparency and quality.
- Ruth Hansten likes to think about thinking—the field of critical thinking and clinical judgment. Individuals may not always understand or question how they make decisions—but the process is an important one, and can lead to better decisions, and thus better patient outcomes.
- Angela Barron McBride has long viewed mentoring and teaching as a cornerstone of her career—and she has nurtured other nurses as an author, professor, dean, and organizational president.
- In 1978, Sandra McGuire was a nurse in the outpatient department of Michigan’s Plymouth Center for Human Development. The state facility housed 1,100 mentally disabled people; she worked to link families with the community resources that would keep their children out of such an institution.
- After over three decades of service, Donna M. Policastro, has evolved as one of Rhode Island’s most vocal advocates for women and nurses.
- Through the Living Independently for Elders (LIFE) program in West Philadelphia, Eileen Sullivan-Marx , has had the opportunity to prove that a community-based, nurse-managed program can improve patients’ quality of life and potentially serve as a model for a reconfigured U.S. health care system.
