Leadership Development through Journal Editing

Introduction/Background:

Nurses are highly regarded in the healthcare community. Having diverse educational preparation and expertise accentuates their ability to collaboratively and holistically address health care issues. For example, the PhD prepared nurse researcher may coordinate and collaborate with a clinical expert such as the Doctor of Nursing Practice prepared nurse to address health care issues. Nurses have been noted to be a critical advocate for change relative to addressing the needs of individuals, including disparate groups and populations.  

Our understanding of the needs and concerns of rural and medically underserved populations and our experiences working in rural and other medically-underserved areas, served as the impetus for this Experienced Nursing Faculty Leadership Academy (ENFLA) nursing scholar project. The nurse scholar, who led the project, identified a need to increase collaboration among doctoral-prepared faculty in the areas of scholarship and service.  

Aim/Goal/Purpose sentence: The goals are 1) Increasing personal and professional skills, particularly in leadership, collaboration, and publication and 2) promoting inclusivity, leadership, and growth among nursing faculty.

Methods: The ENFLA sponsored by Sigma Theta Tau International/ Chamberlain College of Nursing Center for Excellence in Nursing Education used a triad team approach. The triad consisting of the nurse scholar, JoAnn Oliver, the ENFLA mentor, Sandra Millon Underwood and ENFLA faculty member, Pamela Jeffries was instrumental in the completion of the leadership project. The ENFLA mentor and ENFLA faculty member facilitated the nurse scholar’s development and completion of an individual leadership plan. The main goals of the leadership plan focused on increasing personal and professional skills and promoting inclusivity, leadership, and growth among nursing faculty.

In collaboration with the mentor, a time line was developed. A table of contents was established on specific healthcare topics. Author’s manuscripts were submitted to an Electronic Manuscript Submission System and reviewed using the criteria established by the Journal.

Junior nursing faculty members were recruited to participate in the review of select manuscripts for educational purposes and as a service opportunity. Faculty members who participated in the learning opportunity were provided with written documentation as evidence of their participation and service.

Results:  With the support of both Pam Jeffries, faculty and Sandra Millon Underwood, mentor, the ENFLA scholar developed and implemented an individual leadership plan. The main goal focusing on increasing personal and professional skills and promoting inclusivity, leadership, and growth among nursing faculty was met.  Faculty members of diverse educational backgrounds collaborated on articles. Faculty participated in manuscript review service opportunities. Significant learning and personal growth and development was experienced by the nurse scholar through the co-editing leadership experience. Oral and written communication with colleagues from across the nation occurred. The scholar led the process of co-editing the September 2015 issue of Nursing Clinics of North America.  Sandra Millon Underwood provided support as ENFLA mentor and co-editor. Fourteen articles were included in the final edited publication. Specific topics addressed in the publication are: 1) Diabetes and Hearing loss 2) Cardiovascular health 3)Food insecurity 4) Assessing clinical health issues 5) Best practices for effective clinical partnerships 6) Integrating family health history 7) Health information seeking 8) Cervical and breast cancer literacy 9) Tailoring interactive multimedia to improve diabetes self-management 10) Smoking Cessation 11) Diabetes and children 12) Using mobile devices to access information in a rural setting 13) Obesity Assessment 14) Rural health and non-emergency use of emergency medical services.

Conclusions: The ENFLA facilitated in further developing a myriad of leadership skills. Enhanced opportunities to plan, develop, and implement a leadership project resulted in a high quality and disseminated outcome. This leadership project promoted personal and professional leadership growth among the ENFLA nurse scholar. This project served as a unique opportunity to increase inclusivity and collaborative efforts among a diverse group of nursing faculty and clinical experts. Additionally, the project dissemination forum also served as a mechanism to expand the influence of the nurse scholar within the institution, community, and nursing profession.