SPECIAL SESSION: Transforming Nurse Leaders Through a Mentored Leadership Experience

The 2010 Institute of Medicine report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, calls for health organizations, including nursing organizations and nursing schools, to “provide nurses greater opportunities to gain leadership skills and put them into practice.” In an effort to prepare the next generation of nurse leaders, the International Leadership Institute (ILI) at Sigma Theta Tau International offers leadership development for academic and clinical nurse leaders, who wish to increase their leadership expertise. Often times, faculty members are promoted into leadership positions without adequate preparation. To facilitate this transition, the ILI offers leadership academies for evolving nurse leaders.

The International Leadership Institute (ILI) was created by Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) to develop nurse leaders through mentoring, self-assessment, continuing nursing education, experiential learning, and professional development resources.

The ILI academies were designed to strengthen leadership behaviors through an 18-month guided leadership journey, resulting in intentional behavioral change. The academy triad relationship – the Scholar, the Leadership Mentor and the Faculty Advisor – is the foundation of leadership development. The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership ® (evidence-based best practices in leadership from The Leadership Challenge ® by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner) serves as the framework for leadership development. A leadership project is identified by each Scholar, which is a vehicle for leadership development and organizational impact.

The mentored leadership development occurs in three domains: individual leadership development, advancement of nursing education through leadership of an interprofessional team project, and expanding the scope of influence – organization/community/profession.

The Nurse Faculty Leadership Academy (NFLA) is presented in partnership with The Elsevier Foundation. NFLA began in 2010 as a pilot, the Nurse Faculty Mentored Leadership Development (NFMLD) academy and has begun its fourth cohort. It is an international leadership development program for nurse faculty with two to seven years of experience, designed to foster academic career success, promote nurse faculty retention/satisfaction and cultivate high performing, supportive work environments in academe.

The Maternal-Child Health Nurse Leadership Academy (MCHNLA) is presented in partnership with Johnson & Johnson Corporate Contributions. MCHNLA started in 2004 and has started its seventh cohort. This academy is designed for maternal-child health nurses and nurse midwives to create improvements in health systems or models of care, by effectively leading an interdisciplinary team to improve maternal-child health practice outcomes of underserved populations.

The Gerontological Nursing Leadership Academy (GNLA) is presented in partnership with Hill-Rom. GNLA was started in 2008 and has begun its fifth cohort. This academy is designed to prepare mid-career nurses, in diverse settings, to lead an interprofessional team project in the improvement of healthcare quality for older adults and their families.

The desired outcome of the academies is to prepare and position nurses in leadership roles in the academic and health care settings.