SPECIAL SESSION: The Gerontological Nursing Leadership Academy: Impacting the Future of Care Delivery and Policy

Description/Overview: The rising prominence of focus upon caring for older adults throughout the world drives the necessity to prepare and position nurse leaders to influence the future for this population. A growing need exists for large scale strategic intervention and innovation related to planning and providing health and wellness services to these older adults. Nurse leaders must facilitate advancements in awareness, interprofessional team leadership, delivery of care, and policy development in various settings and with diverse stakeholders to achieve measurable impact on health, cost and quality. The international Gerontological Nursing Leadership Academy (GNLA) provides an intentional personal and professional development experience for nurse Fellows who are at mid-career. The eighteen month academy is structured upon a strategic triad relationship among the Fellow, a Leadership Mentor, and a Faculty Advisor. Health care and policy related interprofessional team projects serve as the milieu for Fellows to apply leadership behavior change acquired through the GNLA. The Academy is currently conducting the fifth cohort of gerontological nurse Fellows. The GNLA Fellows have achieved significant outcomes within the three curricular domains: individual leadership development; advancement of practice through leadership of interprofessional team projects; and expanded scope of influence at the organizational, community, and professional levels. Strategic partnerships with senior executives of healthcare and community organizations have been critical to facilitating the impact Fellows have so successfully implemented. Through a behaviorally focused leadership development experience, the GNLA Fellowship provides the foundation for ongoing and sustainable influence at the organizational, community, and professional levels. The outcomes and impact of leading health system change, policy development, and practice advancements in caring for older adults will be described by Faculty Advisors and Fellows. Additionally, a leading national healthcare advocate will present how the GNLA has forged a relationship to the future of global leadership and advancements in care of older adults.