Lost in familiar places...again (on the nature of nursing leadership)

A vision for tomorrow: transformational nursing leaders

BACKGROUND

Interviews with 8 transformational nursing leaders are presented.

PURPOSE

My purpose was to provide a picture of leadership principles and values as practiced by transformational nursing leaders.

METHOD

Interviews were conducted as person-to-person, by telephone, or through e-mail.

DISCUSSION

The leaders shared their transformational leadership qualities, ideas of a successful environment, effective change strategies, antecedents for success, and visions for the future of nursing practice.

CONCLUSIONS

All of the transformational leaders interviewed strive for excellence, value integrity, shape their environment for success, demonstrate perseverance, attempt to improve the lives of others, possess a genuine love for people, motivate others with inspiration, "invent" the future, and share the path toward self-discovery.

Nursing leadership: bringing caring back to the future

Leadership, whether it is nursing, medical or healthcare leadership, is about knowing how to make visions become reality. The vision that many nurses hold dear to their hearts is one where patients are treated with dignity and respect at all times; where systems are designed for the benefit of individual needs; and where the work performed by nurses and other carers is valued and respected. Achieving such a vision will require a paradigm shift in the philosophy, priorities, policies, and power relationships of the health service. Fundamentally, it will require the rhetoric of patient centred care to become a reality. The following scenario is set in the UK in the year 2012 and describes a health service that is on the pathway to achieving this vision. It tells the story from a nursing perspective and outlines the three key foundation stones that helped nursing achieve the vision of a patient centred health service: (1) development of patient centred care measures as part of performance management and the clinical governance agenda; (2) leadership based on personal growth and development principles; (3) new clinical career and competency framework for nursing.