Latest articles about Leadership Development http://www.longwoods.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:21:48 -0500 Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:21:20 -0500 FeedForAll v2.0 (2.0.2.9) http://www.feedforall.com Healthcare practitioners make many important ethical decisions in their day-to-day practices. Questions arising in daily practice require practitioners to make prudent, balanced and good decisions, which are most effectively made interpersonally and reflectively. It is commonly assumed that the team-based structure of healthcare delivery can provide practitioners with the support needed to address ethical questions in their practice, especially if the team involves multidisciplinary collaboration. A phenomenological study was conducted in which the impact of the team and the larger organization on practitioners' experiences of dealing with moral challenges was uncovered. Various mental healthcare professionals shared their experiences of ethically challenging situations in their practices and described the ways in which their teammates and supervisors affected how they faced these troubling situations. These findings allow us to see that there is considerable room for healthcare managers, many of whom are nurses, to facilitate supportive, ethical environments for healthcare professionals. An understanding of the essential experience of practising ethically allows for an appreciation of the significance of the team's role in supporting it and enables healthcare managers to target support for ethical healthcare work. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=20290&cat=576&page=1 23808263-42D7-4D3F-B6D0-4E48A6116E7A Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:21:20 -0500 The authors of this paper describe the EXTRA Program, its intended outcomes, the approach they used to evaluate the program and some initial findings regarding the program's effects on the EXTRA fellows after the initial two-year period. The program's mission is to develop capacity and leadership to optimize the use of research-based evidence in Canadian healthcare organizations. Using Kirkpatrick's four-level model for evaluating training effectiveness, the authors conclude that after two years the program appears to be having the desired effects on the fellows. There is now a need to develop a richer understanding of the effects within the host organizations and to consider ways of transferring the new knowledge to other healthcare organizations outside the EXTRA Program umbrella. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=20161&cat=572&page=1 B4373B1F-8DEB-4CA4-8A1B-47910DA9D4A6 Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:10:18 -0500 The British Columbia Nursing Administrative Leadership Institute for First Line Nurse Leaders (BC NLI) is a collaborative partnership among British Columbia's Chief Nursing Officers, the Ministry of Health Nursing Directorate and the University of British Columbia School of Nursing. This initiative consists of a four-day residential program and a year-long leadership project between BC NLI participants and their organizational mentors. The evidence-based curriculum covers universal leadership and management concepts, but it also addresses leadership issues of relevance to nurse leaders in today's complex healthcare environments. The BC NLI is part of a provincial health human resources endeavour to ensure sufficient nursing leaders - for now and in the future. This paper will discuss the development, implementation and evaluation of the BC NLI. Unique aspects of the program, such as its online networking component, will be described, and its role in nursing leadership research will be briefly examined. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=20061&cat=562&page=1 C1E4F60D-18C3-4F1A-8F2E-555D6F3A88E0 Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:26:18 -0400 This paper focuses on nurses' perceptions of their individual contributions to the work environment. Fourteen community hospitals participated in the study. A positive nursing work environment was selected in each agency by its Director of Nursing. Selection was based on subjective and objective criteria. All staff nurses, nurse managers and the director of nursing associated with these units were asked to respond to an open-ended question describing their perceived contributions to the work settings. Ninety-two nurses responded for a response rate of 42%. Overall the three themes of People, Practice and Place surfaced from 15 categories of responses. The same three themes surfaced for all three nurse groups but variation was noted with regards to the categories of contributions the groups most frequently reported within the theme. In this time of continuous change throughout the health care system, nurses need to be able to articulate and affirm their important contributions to the effective shaping of positive health care settings. A focus on contributions could assist with team building, leadership development and have an important impact on quality patient care outcomes. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=16298 B8A23A6C-40BE-4F99-B424-2E11654F2FC3 Sat, 15 Jan 2000 16:14:12 -0400 Competency models, a combination of identified skills, knowledge and attributes required for successful role performance, lend a roadmap for success to leaders of today and the new leaders of tomorrow. In healthcare, where the environment is ever-changing, and the pool of qualified leaders is limited and shrinking, competency models help to identify required areas of strength for success in performance. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=16667 824326E7-76D1-4709-B638-DFFE98AD54C8 Sun, 15 Dec 2002 16:05:38 -0400 Federal and provincial professional bodies of nursing and healthcare are examining the role of nursing leadership and its relation in creating and sustaining quality work environments for nursing. Using the findings and recommendations of the Canadian Nursing Advisory Report Committee (2002) as a catalyst, nurse leaders from Children's and Women's Health Centre of British Columbia (C&W) have collaborated to develop principles of nursing leadership to be used as a resource in determining roles and functions of front-line nurse leaders throughout the organization. In this paper, the process of creating those nursing leadership principles is described with a focus on the unit-based operational leader. Suggestions are made on how to evaluate the effectiveness of principle-based nursing leadership as implemented at C&W and its utility to the unit-based operational leader. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=16269 2442014C-0FFB-4053-B1C4-D80FA92079CA Sat, 15 May 2004 16:03:31 -0400 James Reinertsen, MD, has worked as a physician, CEO and consultant on leadership, quality improvement and patient safety with leading healthcare systems around the world. What follow are excerpts from a conversation held at a dinner for healthcare leaders during the 7th National Conference on Quality in Toronto this February (2006). Reinertsen is a former CEO of Health System Minnesota and CareGroup, an academic and community hospital system in Boston. He currently heads The Reinertsen Group and leads the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's leadership development sector. The questions are posed by G. Ross Baker, PhD, professor in the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=18730 B466ADAF-5506-42D0-BD58-8E3AD80E0FCB Thu, 15 Feb 2007 16:01:31 -0400 Once each year we publish the ACEN Annual Report in this column. This year is no exception, but first, an update on our recent annual education day and Annual General Meeting. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=18596 1B176F1B-84B3-4025-8043-E35534C27919 Fri, 15 Dec 2006 16:00:19 -0400 After a late start, Ontario is well on its way to implementing an ambitious Wait Time Strategy that has already begun to show some tangible improvements in access to the five priority areas. This commentary argues that in addition to the supporting tools identified in the lead essay, a sustainable wait time strategy must encompass prevention and demand management, address shortages in health human resources, provide patients with recourse to a safety valve and promote interprovincial standards and cooperation. Care will also be needed to ensure ongoing support and engagement of organized medicine, realigning incentives to support patient care and extending the reach of health information systems into the community. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=18316&cat=448 5B2252D1-316E-41AC-9C69-7BAB6457F7B0 Sat, 15 Jul 2006 15:59:15 -0400 The year 2003-04 was characterized by significant expansion of strategic alliances with key national healthcare organizations and government, successful completion of several patient safety and nursing workload initiatives and preparation for the development of a permanent secretariat in Ottawa for the Academy. These were the particular directions chosen for the Academy at the 2003 annual meeting. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=17014&cat=355 4FB33B15-689F-40CA-8A60-4A28B3B86E84 Mon, 15 Nov 2004 15:58:19 -0400 This is the fourth in a series of reports to share key learnings from my 2005 sabbatical, when I took a three-month journey through Scandinavia, Western Europe, Ireland and the United Kingdom to observe innovation in nursing services delivery. The focus of this report is recruitment, retention and quality of work life. All the countries I visited were addressing these issues to deal with the global health human resources shortage we all face. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=18362&cat=451 5956A317-AD97-405D-A17B-405E1851F1D9 Fri, 15 Sep 2006 15:57:29 -0400 Earlier this year I had a very stressful experience. I was invited by a medical colleague to speak at the annual conference of a national academic medical organization. The topic was leadership development, and I was asked to focus on nursing. I didn't ask many questions because I thought I knew what leadership development in nursing meant. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=16323&cat=274 367550DD-86D6-4701-AA3E-725A33463ED9 Sat, 15 Nov 2003 15:55:56 -0400 Because the Annual General Meeting of the Academy of Canadian Executive Nurses (ACEN) was moved to November from September, this report covers a 14-month period. During this time, ACEN has taken on a new identity on the national front. We have implemented the decisions taken at the last annual meeting related to changes in membership categories and fees, establishing a national office and increasing the Academy's visibility. Membership has been expanded to include nursing executive leaders in healthcare delivery, academia, government and professional associations. The response to this change has been positive, and it is anticipated that membership will continue to increase over the next year. A national office has been established in Ottawa. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=17830&cat=411 D447CEC1-9243-425A-8DEE-0200CB847D27 Thu, 15 Dec 2005 15:54:09 -0400 The use of performance indicators can be a powerful driver of an organization's decisions and activities, particularly when coupled with consistently applied consequences. Given that the saying "What gets measured, gets done" is often true, it is imperative that both the actual choice of indicators and the process of how indicators are selected be carried out in a thoughtful, comprehensive and evidence-based manner. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=18663&cat=466 35AC8E7E-0FD7-47F4-8364-26A8483E4E0D Mon, 15 Jan 2007 15:41:43 -0400 In 2003, over 13,000 Ontario nurses were surveyed to explore how they evaluated their hospital work environments and their responses to these practice environments. The purpose of this paper is to describe and compare these nurses' evaluations and responses. Sixty-five percent of nurses who were mailed surveys completed and returned a survey. Significant differences were found between registered nurse and registered practical nurse characteristics such as mean age, full-time employment rates, mean years of nursing experience and proportion enrolled in university or college educational programs. Both groups reported weak professional practice environments; however, there were some significant differences between the evaluations by registered nurses and those of registered practical nurses. Although both groups reported weak job satisfaction and moderate levels of burnout, there were significant differences in other responses. Study findings have implications for managing and leading nurses and for strengthening human resources practices. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=17835&page=152 FF1F9FAF-7C50-440F-8D71-7E5BF4F01BB5 Thu, 15 Dec 2005 15:40:48 -0400 You have just become the Chief Operating Officer of a hospital site where you were the former CEO. The senior team met for the first time last week and includes former leaders and several new faces. A new CEO was selected by a steering committee of the new board and hails from the private sector. The hospital has become one of six sites consolidated into a regional health system, which also includes home care, long-term care, public-health, ambulance and other services. There is only one governance, management and medical staff structure where there had been eight (including non-institutional providers) previously. A seventh site, owned and operated by a religious order, has made a contractual arrangement for its continued autonomy and funding. Several of the sites had deficits in the preceding fiscal year and a financial recovery plan has been requested within 90 days. Three years ago, a consultant's report noted numerous efficiency opportunities but the focus of its implementation became the new regional model. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=16562 8BFCC709-BCCD-49A3-B919-5561AD6A364B Tue, 15 Dec 1998 14:49:24 -0400 Although she denies it, Sister Elizabeth Davis, a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy of Newfoundland and Labrador, is becoming a Canadian icon: in education, in healthcare, in leadership development, in social policy and in religious studies, in Canada and abroad. With teaching appointments and participation on many boards and commissions, she leaves a trail of wisdom, quiet successes and vocal fans in her wake. In 2001, she won the Catholic Health Care Association of Canada's Performance Citation Award and the Canadian Healthcare Association's Award for Excellence in Distinguished Service. Those were followed by an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Memorial University of Newfoundland, induction into the Alpha Sigma Nu Honour Society of Jesuit Educational Institutions and an appointment as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2004. Recently, the University of Toronto's Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation selected Sister Elizabeth as Leader of the Year for 2006. Ken Tremblay caught up with Sister Elizabeth at St. Augustine's Seminary in Toronto, where she is currently teaching a course titled Introduction to the Old Testament. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=18646&cat=464 C31459A3-5BFA-4BC0-B59C-669EB4687599 Mon, 15 Jan 2007 14:41:42 -0400 In this issue of the journal, I'd like to give you an update on recent activities of the Academy of Canadian Executive Nurses, as well as other organizations supporting nursing leadership development. So often, nurses remain unaware of important national-level initiatives, for a variety of reasons. There are many websites to which you can subscribe without cost (or "bookmark as favourites") to stay in the loop and to ensure you don't miss important opportunities, such as access to national scholarships, bursaries, research grants and position papers or statements that could help support changes you would like to see in your practice or organization. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=16355&cat=278 63BD063E-49EC-4D8D-AD04-55099125BB94 Thu, 15 Jul 2004 14:40:42 -0400 To an extent unprecedented in history, healthcare is a complex and human enterprise. Generating the complexity are stakeholders with more diverse perspectives, needs, and agendas, and greater knowledge and vested interest than ever before. Given their pivotal position between the direct-care environment and external stakeholders, nurse managers can no longer rely on the hierarchy, authority, and linear thinking afforded by traditional management; in order to accomplish they must lead people by working through them. Ironically, when needed most, there is a lack of consensus in the literature about what leadership is. In this paper I describe the paradigms for leadership and management held by six Canadian nurse managers who participated in a phenomenological study of leadership. Thinking leaders worked through people to enhance their growth, potential, and accomplishment, participants did so by creating and sustaining inclusive environments, influencing people, and acting in a manner that reflected and supported integrity. Participants thought managers did not focus on people; instead, they carried out routine, procedure-driven tasks to run departmental business. Included in this paper are suggestions about how participants' paradigms might benefit the nursing profession, consumers of care, and healthcare organizations. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=16299&cat=267 74F012E2-18C4-49A7-8B0B-FBC7B3E61DD2 Sat, 15 Jan 2000 14:39:40 -0400 There is no doubt we are in the midst of considerable turmoil over healthcare in Canada. Much of it centres around two issues: the future shape of the system (as we write, Prime Minister Paul Martin and the premiers are trying to work this out) and the need to develop sound recruitment and retention policies and practices for nurses and other healthcare professionals. Nurses, indeed all Canadians, are concerned, and cries for leadership are being raised everywhere. But how do we ensure we have the leaders we need to guide us to our desired futures? http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=16267 22A87CD0-0EC3-4A49-9196-7F839931B94E Sat, 15 May 2004 14:38:23 -0400 This paper describes the findings of a two-part study designed to elicit preliminary answers to the questions: "How do incumbents and potential aspirants describe key role functions and competencies associated with senior nursing leadership positions in Canada?" and "What lessons can be drawn for considerations of leadership succession planning?" The study was undertaken to develop a grounded knowledge framework upon which to develop national and local strategies. Such knowledge may help minimize the impact of an impending crisis by identifying gaps between expectations and reality in order to support proactive succession planning strategies and sustain senior leadership in Canadian nursing http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=18176 1CAE3042-1CF6-4234-BEF7-B52F4780E483 Mon, 15 May 2006 14:35:33 -0400 If leadership is so important, why are leaders so rare? Are leaders born or can they be taught? What does it take to be a leader? The editors of Healthcare Quarterly asked two healthcare leaders about leadership. Here's a roundup of their thoughtful and hard-won lessons. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=17170&cat=359 5E1A5C11-CC41-4DB1-B134-6D8A35B5E84E Sun, 15 May 2005 14:34:34 -0400 There is debate within the nursing profession in regard to determining the best approach to leadership development for the new millennium. Should nursing adopt career pathways like other disciplines that enable individuals to develop leadership potential in a timely fashion? St. Francis Xavier University (StFXU), the number one ranked undergraduate school in the country (DeMont 2002), has established an innovative strategy that promotes leadership development at the undergraduate level. It has launched a special stream of its BScN program that culminates in an honours degree. The program, the first of its type in Canada, is designed to produce nursing leaders and scholars who will possess the core competencies required for leadership in diverse environments. This paper discusses the role of honours education in nursing, describes the curriculum and related learning activities in the StFXU honours program and explores the benefits and challenges that an honours program has to offer. The findings will benefit nurse leaders in educational and practice settings, professional organizations and policy arenas who are interested in influencing the development of leadership in nursing. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=16254&cat=274 7A1DDB9D-CD56-4845-B1F9-21F171BEA956 Sat, 15 Nov 2003 14:30:38 -0400 This paper discusses the challenges that staff nurses face when moving into formal leadership positions. Current transition strategies for nurses are presented, including a critical analysis of organizational and individual factors that enhance or impede the transition to front-line nurse leadership positions. Recommendations outline essential practices, resources available and support networks that enable a smooth transition into these positions. Reflections on the author's personal transition to a front-line nurse leadership position are included. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=16341&cat=274 0324BF68-3DFE-4E4D-8E07-13CF679E46CE Sat, 15 Nov 2003 14:28:02 -0400 Parallel to the shortage of clinical nurses is the diminishing pool of nurses who aspire to leadership roles in healthcare. The authors of this paper report on the evaluation of an intervention administered to a group of Canadian nurses designed to assist participants to value leadership and to develop knowledge, skills and attitudes required for effective leadership. A one-group pre-test, post-test quasi-experimental design guided the study. All participants received a five-day residential leadership development intervention. Participants acted as their own controls and were assessed, both immediately before intervention implementation and three months later, on the self- and observer-reported leadership practices as well as self-reported levels of burnout. Results indicated that a concentrated, residential leadership development intervention is effective in strengthening leadership behaviours performed by both already established and aspiring nurse leaders from the perspective of observers, but not from self-reported assessments. No significant changes in self-reported burnout levels were found. It is possible to deliver leadership development interventions to both established and aspiring nurse leaders that result in fairly rapid improvements in observed leadership practices. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=16256&cat=274 BB209F25-0C5A-48A1-BF48-86483F3599E6 Sat, 15 Nov 2003 14:26:51 -0400 Our society is becoming more complex. Although change is not pervasive, the pace of change is becoming more rapid. Leaders must deal constantly with managing both change and continuity. Canadian nursing is experiencing a dearth of persons qualified and willing to assume leadership roles at a time unparalleled with respect to opportunities for advancing the profession. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=17016&cat=355 AAAE7410-B70F-4814-91B7-D5E76F3848E0 Mon, 15 Nov 2004 14:25:30 -0400 The healthcare system is facing unique challenges that are distinct from the issues that face any other type of organization or corporation. Leadership in this milieu requires an equally distinct set of skills and knowledge. Leatt and Porter offer a theoretical analysis of leadership development, yet more needs to be done to probe into the challenge of providing leadership in the healthcare continuum. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=16902&cat=345 FEBE128D-D5B3-4259-9A38-D1E2EDA96F43 Tue, 15 Jul 2003 14:23:21 -0400 The quality of leadership is usually assessed in terms of business performance, which is reflected in expenditure and revenue figures. Although cost efficiency becomes an ever more important factor in healthcare, financial revenue is not the only defining factor for quality of leadership in a business where the consequence of failure may be deadly in the true sense of the word. Moreover, since "health" and "well-being" are both complex issues involving a variety of psychological variables, customer satisfaction in this field is not always strictly related to the quality of the delivered care. This difficulty in the definition of an accomplished leader in healthcare may have added to the negligence in developing leadership in this field. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=16901&cat=345 0A463FD2-8B45-4EEA-8E26-A83CDA0FD894 Tue, 15 Jul 2003 14:22:59 -0400 The complexity, structure, pace of change and distribution of authority in healthcare institutions make them radically different in terms of leadership required than businesses, the military or the government. With multiple internal and external stakeholders, the perception of leadership may be as important as its actual quality, making it much more difficult to define, evaluate and replicate in healthcare. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=16900&cat=345 00A1A5C3-70AE-4D05-9D4B-ECF75B07A29D Tue, 15 Jul 2003 14:22:37 -0400 This commentary argues that the graduate education model is inappropriate for developing healthcare leaders. The model has served healthcare well in the development of researchers and other academics because it prepares them for a lifetime of success in scholarly publication. However, this model is inappropriate for developing healthcare leaders. What is required for leadership development is a practitioner-based learning model that focuses on developing emotional intelligence. As illustrated by the success of the Center for Creative Leadership, such a learning process involves experiential learning with and from peers in a supportive environment. The paper argues that future leaders must be provided with opportunities to reflect upon and refine their emotional responses to situations that call for leadership. Reflection and feedback on behaviour and emotions are the critical components of such learning. Cognitive understanding, the hallmark of the graduate education model, is but a small part of leadership development. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=16899&cat=345 092F7641-25D3-488A-BB80-BFD3B0597221 Tue, 15 Jul 2003 14:22:02 -0400 What characterizes effective leaders and how can we train them so that the future of the healthcare field will be secure and successful? In the lead paper, Leatt and Porter do an excellent job of summarizing the leadership literature. They then comment on the challenges for the healthcare field. A problem with their analysis is the narrow focus on provider organizations and its attendant limited perspective. Also, further consideration should be given to graduate programs that are actively engaged in lifelong learning opportunities and the best educational practices they demonstrate. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=16898&cat=345 B1E255EC-F130-4F2F-80D1-2DC1A4788600 Tue, 15 Jul 2003 14:21:35 -0400 This commentary explores the role of graduate programs in developing future leaders in health administration. The five-stage Dreyfus model for skill acquisition is applied to graduate education and continuing professional development, and barriers to producing the type of leader capable of transforming the healthcare system are discussed. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=16897&cat=345 2BC0B219-7D07-4022-AB6C-DC768B7B9D8A Tue, 15 Jul 2003 14:21:12 -0400 There appears to be a growing consensus that better leadership is needed in healthcare, although there is much less agreement on the specific knowledge and skills required to improve performance. This commentary suggests that the articulation of healthcare leadership and management competencies provides a framework and a language for identifying the leadership knowledge and skills required for high-quality healthcare in the 21st century. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=16896&cat=345 63F21E62-EF4C-4D36-AFFC-53F676BC756E Tue, 15 Jul 2003 14:20:43 -0400 Certain proposals are difficult to challenge and appear to be beyond debate. The call for improved quality of healthcare is one of these. And certainly, the call for more leaders and more highly skilled leaders in the healthcare industry is another, especially in these times of rapid change, strained resources and concern about quality. Though the goal of preparing more leaders, and in particular preparing more highly skilled leaders, is meritorious, the premises underlying this goal and the methods of achieving it deserve careful examination. This commentary questions the ability to accurately forecast the supply of and demand for leaders in the healthcare industry and examines selected aspects of the 10 principles for leadership development proposed in the lead paper. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=16895&cat=345 34DB83B2-2385-4D6B-8816-3BEA1755DE62 Tue, 15 Jul 2003 14:20:21 -0400 Leatt and Porter present an excellent and timely review of the current leadership challenge in the field of healthcare administration. Their case is assembled through a review of relevant management literature and an adept summarization of current thinking and contemporary needs in the leadership zone of healthcare organizations. This commentator views the authors' thesis through the filters of a 30-year career as a healthcare administration practitioner and educator, the last 20 of which have been as a chief executive officer and concurrent professorial appointee at four universities in the United States. A leadership development paradigm at the UAB Health System is used to demonstrate an application of the lead authors' proposed, career-long development process encompassing graduate, postgraduate, mid-career and senior-executive levels. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=16894&cat=345 0FC7B534-AB5B-43A4-A920-7F5E3157CC2C Tue, 15 Jul 2003 14:19:58 -0400 While the lead authors explore concepts of leadership from many dimensions, their observations stop short of practical discussion of leadership behaviour in the real healthcare world. This commentary calls for examination of the skills and abilities that strong leaders actually use to lead their organizations. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=16893&cat=345 AB989B05-7B9C-466B-9F38-69B39929EA62 Tue, 15 Jul 2003 14:17:16 -0400 Leatt and Porter offer views on the principles of leadership development for the future of healthcare and propose a "new model for developing healthcare leaders ... that could transform the educational process and improve outcomes" for organizations as a whole. They maintain that the healthcare "educational process needs to be designed to enhance senior healthcare leaders' competency, prepare them for action and ultimately increase leadership and system performance and quality." As a tool to achieve these goals, Leatt and Porter present a model for learning based on 10 principles that, among other things, address what they see as the "need to increase our ability to identify, quantify, develop, measure and evaluate competencies for healthcare leaders." In the viewpoint of this commentator, written from his observations as a CEO, the most critical competencies in a leader, and the least susceptible to measurement, are creativity and vision. In the business world, as in the healthcare sector, these traits are absolutely necessary for leaders to deal effectively with known and unforeseen demands on their organizations, ongoing problems of scarce resources and, particularly in the Canadian healthcare sector, the need for leaders to negotiate with all levels of government to improve the system. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=16892&cat=345 5B7C0651-CA1C-40B5-8E07-75EFFB17852C Tue, 15 Jul 2003 14:16:15 -0400 Is there a crisis in healthcare leadership? In order to understand this question we must first look at what is meant by the term leadership. We prize and admire leadership skills, yet we have little understanding of how and why some persons are more effective leaders than others. This paper describes the changing concept of leadership in the context of both corporate and healthcare settings. The approaches taken in corporate leadership development programs are contrasted with the way in which leaders have been developed in healthcare. The authors assert that there are unique characteristics of health systems and organizations that warrant a tailored approach. A new model of developing healthcare leaders is proposed, one that could transform the educational process and improve outcomes. The authors call for a "back to basics" about how adults learn and outline an approach to leadership development in healthcare that includes principles of competency-based development, interdisciplinary and team learning and continuous assessment. Their conclusion is that leadership development is not done solely to improve the leadership skills of one individual but is an essential component of the development of the organization as a whole. Progressive health systems that invest in leadership development for the entire senior management team will have the more significant return on investment in terms of organizational effectiveness. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=16891&cat=345 04DBA905-4A17-4D7F-AF19-BFA3657D349B Tue, 15 Jul 2003 14:15:34 -0400 The development of leadership positions in nursing is paramount to strengthening the Canadian healthcare system and is one of ACEN's priorities. National reports, such as the Romanow Report (2002) from the Commission on the Future of Health Care and the 2003 First Ministers Health Accord (Health Canada 2006), have highlighted the importance of building leadership capacities among healthcare professionals. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=18364&cat=451 CDC50319-E519-4C6A-8CE9-5574B1ACFC74 Fri, 15 Sep 2006 14:05:25 -0400 Given predictions of a looming shortfall in nursing human resources and the need for strong leaders to meet the challenges of sustaining and managing the healthcare of Canadians in the face of this crisis, a focus on leadership development becomes critical. Canada needs a new cohort of leaders in nursing and healthcare, as the current cohort is fast approaching retirement. Today's cohort of nursing leaders contains significantly fewer people than it did a decade ago owing to healthcare downsizing and cost containment. Those nurses who remain in leadership positions now cope with role expansion and increased competing demands, leaving little or no time to mentor emerging leaders in the profession. These facts, together with the lack of incentives to attract younger nurses into managerial and administrative positions, present a serious challenge for future nursing leadership. http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=18170&cat=442 4019FDB4-0B3D-4F5A-96F9-201CE9534332 Mon, 15 May 2006 11:10:39 -0400