Nursing Leadership: Who Are Our Future Nursing Leaders?
I am honored to be the new President of the Nursing Leadership Network of Ontario (NLN.ON). 2014/2015 promises to be an exciting year! Recently NLN.ON had another successful conference entitled, “Nursing Leadership- Learning from the Patient Experience.” This conference brought NLN.ON’s vision to life. It built connectivity between nurse leaders, facilitated opportunities to coach nurse leaders and modelled optimism for excellence in nursing leadership. I would like to acknowledge and give praise to the Conference Planning Committee and Conference Chair – Kate Zimmerman for an outstanding conference theme. What inspired me most about this year’s conference was the enthusiasm and commitment to leadership in nursing and its impact on the patient experience.
I encourage all of us to ask ourselves, “What does nursing leadership look like in the next five, ten or twenty years from now?” “Who will our nursing leaders be then?” “What are we doing as nursing leaders to coach, mentor and support novice nurses and nursing students to advance their leadership knowledge and skills?” As nursing leaders we play a major role in shaping the profession of nursing – particularly nursing leadership and its impact on our patients and families.
Our NLN.ON Board of Directors has developed a robust agenda to implement and evaluate our strategic intentions which are aimed at fostering nursing leadership. Our 2012-2015 Strategic Intentions are as follows:
- Knowledge exchange and recognition – our NLN.ON Annual Conference will be held March 26 and 27, 2015!
- Membership – ongoing recruitment of new NLN.ON members is critical
- Partnering with RNAO on leadership initiatives
- Board Capacity to ensure efficiency and effectiveness.
These strategic intentions will keep us focused on the ongoing importance of nursing leadership today and tomorrow. So, who will our nurse leaders be in the future? Do we have nurses who are willing and able to lead our illustrious profession in the direction we need to move towards? I believe we do! Our future nursing leaders are everywhere! This was evident at our recent conference.
Our vision, “Inspiring, supporting and advocating today for nursing leadership tomorrow,” speaks to the importance of positioning ourselves as we embark upon another provincial election this June. As nursing leaders please consider the relevance of how you can positively influence the political agenda by being engaged in the process. RNAO’s, “Why Your Health Matters” is a call to action to leaders of the political parties to collaborate and focus their work on what matters that will improve the health of people and build on an even stronger Ontario.
As nursing leaders let’s continue to support and mentor new and emerging leaders. Let’s take time to reflect and realize the influence we have to those who are inspiring to become leaders like us!
Donna Rothwell, RN, BScN, MN,
President, NLN.ON