Honing our nursing leadership practice requires our constant attention, as the health care landscape changes daily. There is a lot of support to help us keep our leadership skills sharp in this challenging, yet rewarding, role. Our most valuable development tool is having each other-peers we can tap into for best practices or advice. However, peer groups are clearly exclusive when it comes to nursing leadership practice settings and that exclusivity does a disservice to a large segment of nurse leaders-the nontraditional nurse leader. They include nurse leaders outside the 4 walls of a hospital-academicians, post-acute care, industry nurse leaders, and nurses who are our politicians and policy makers, to name a few. At best, they are an afterthought, and at worst, they are left out. Given the various care settings are blending more every day, recognizing the value of these nurse leaders and integrating them into the discipline of nursing leadership practice are essential to the future of nursing.
This issue of Nursing Administration Quarterly highlights the leadership practice of nontraditional nurse leaders and skillfully demonstrates the work they do. Each article offers thought-provoking insights, as well as actionable tactics in a nascent field of nursing leadership practice.
Dr Mary Ellen Glasgow crystallizes several critical issues nurse leaders are facing and the role and contributions of the academic nurse leader in creating and sustaining positive change. The nursing profession is highly dependent on academia to collaborate on common goals that address the complex issues of nursing practice in all care settings. Dr Glasgow's article challenges the status quo of academic nursing-reimagining nursing outside the hospital walls and holding them equally accountable for delivering results.
Defining nursing leadership scopes and standards has customarily been focused on hospital nurse leaders, with nontraditional nurse leaders adapting them to their various settings. Both the American Nurses Association (ANA) and the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL) are entrenched in bodies of work revising standards of practice in nursing leadership, including addressing the nontraditional nurse leader. Dr Christina Dempsey is coleading this work at the ANA and provides an analysis of the AONL Nurse Executive Competencies, comparing and contrasting them to the ANA Nursing Administration Scope and Standards of Practice. This particular article, and a firsthand account of her experiences as a nontraditional nurse leader, further amplifies the necessity to expand inclusion, and as important, research, into nontraditional nursing leadership practice.
This issue includes valuable personal experiences of nurse leaders from various settings-industry, ambulatory care, post-acute care, and politics. Dr Rhonda Collins, former CNO at Vocera Communications, shares her experience empowering nurses to "sit at the table" as she has by using her clinical expertise to influence health care innovation. Dr Patricia Hughes discusses the role and need for nurse leaders in the ambulatory care space and the value of collaborating with hospital nurse leaders for better patient outcomes. She shares her insights into how ambulatory care nurse leaders can help inform all nursing leadership practices. Dr Rachel Behrendt, Senior Vice President of Hospice of the Valley, tells of her transition from hospital CNO to post-acute operations leader and how skills were transferrable, including how she created a sustainable culture. Trained as a family nurse practitioner, Representative Gale Adock is serving her fourth term in the North Carolina (NC) House of Representatives and transitioned from practice to policy maker. She began with a district seat on her town council, mayor pro tem, and eventually the state House. The only advanced practice registered nurse to serve in the NC legislature, she shares insight into communication, collaboration, and facing ethical conflicts as a nurse leader.
The articles in this issue amplify the necessity to expand inclusion, and as important, research, into nontraditional nursing leadership practice. As the world is getting smaller and there is more blending of cultures, experiences, and beliefs, so is the world of nursing leadership. We are all better for being one discipline as nurse leaders.
-Claire M. Zangerle, DNP, RN, MBA, NEA-BC, FAONL, FAAN
-Nora Warshawsky, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN
Guest Editors