SPECIAL SESSION: Leading Tomorrow's Leaders Today: An Overview of Sigma Theta Tau's International Leadership Institutes

Description/Overview: In 2002, a group of experts convened for a think tank on issues influencing maternal-child health in North America. The goal of these experts and sponsors was to develop a plan that would improve maternal child health outcomes by maximizing the contributions made by nurses. Their agreed-upon vision was “to create the future” of maternal child nursing through an initiative that develops leadership skills and abilities, and produces learning experiences that prepare and position individual maternal child nurses to influence patient and practice outcomes. Thus, the Maternal Child Health Nursing Leadership Academy (MCH NLA) was born. The primary goals of the MCH NLA are to 1) improve health outcomes by developing enhanced leadership competencies and implementing evidence-based practice, 2) to introduce improvements in health systems or models of care, 3) to create and effectively lead an interdisciplinary team to improve collaborative practice outcomes and 4) to contribute to the field through project evaluation, communication and dissemination of results. A summary of each will be reviewed and examined. An explanation of how the overwhelming success of the MCH NLA has led to the creation of two other NLA’s will be demonstrated; The Geriatric Nursing Leadership Academy is currently supporting its third cohort and the Nurse Faculty Leadership Academy is in its first full cohort. Key evaluation components are standardized across each of each NLA and will be detailed and explained, along with the results which demonstrate statistically significant achievements. The most recent success has been the implementation of the Maternal-Child Health Nurse Leadership Academy; South Africa Pilot. To date, collectively there have been 172 dyads participating from 6 countries around the Globe. The Academy structure is described in detail, including how participants organize and lead real life organizational change by applying the 5 Leadership Practices of the Kouzes and Posner Leadership Model. Lastly, the author’s own journey through the MCH NLA will be described. Beginning in the 2008 cohort as a Fellow, the 2010 cohort as a Leadership Mentor and in the current 2012 cohort as a NLA Faculty Member. Highlights will include lessons learned along the way, the profound impact participating has had in the author’s personal and professional life, a description of two significant patient care initiatives which have resulted from this journey and the reasons why this author believes every nurse should participate in an NLA.