SPECIAL SESSION: Addressing Global Faculty Needs: The Nurse Faculty Leadership Academy

Description/Overview: Nurse educators are challenged to lead innovative change to create efficient and effective learning environments and improve the quality of the nursing education. In the face of a well-documented shortage of nurse faculty and faculty leaders globally, the need for leadership education, professional development, and mentoring becomes increasingly apparent. The development of academic nurse leaders is a concern at the forefront of organizational planning in nursing programs throughout the world. Without question, as the quality of individual faculty members’leadership ability increases, so does their satisfaction and retention as academicians. Moreover, informed leadership supports the the health of the academic environment, promoting clear and accurate communication and collaboration among the people who work together every day. Organizational success is dependent in larege part on the competency of its faculty and on their leadership. The Nurse Faculty Leadership Academy (NFLA) is an international initiative designed to foster aspiring nurse educators by helping them to define and strengthen their personal leadership skills. Sponsored through a partnership between Sigma Theta Tau International and the Elsevier Foundation, the NFLA offers impassioned nurse educators an opportunity to develop as leaders. NFLA’s curricular elements are focused in three domains: individual leadership development, advancing nursing education through leadership of a team project, and expanding scope of influence. Each Academy scholar engages with a mentor and an advisor; the scholar-mentor-advisor work with a serves as foundation for leadership development. Kouzes and Posner’s (2012) fundamental exemplary leadership practices serve as the theoretical model guiding the NFLA curriculum over its 20-month course. As they implement the Kouzes and Posner leadership practices, Scholars learn to model the way, inspire a shared vision, challenge the process, enable others to act, and encourage the heart. The NFLA, now in its 5th year and hosting its third Scholar cohort, has opened doors for significant and enduring change for novice nurse faculty. As NFLA fosters the skills of involved scholars, it supports, broadly, the advancement of nursing education and the creation of creative and strong academic environments. Using the five exemplary leadership practices as a framework, the presenters will portray the journey of the Scholars in the three domains of the NFLA.