This chapter focuses on a series of case studies and best practices for partnerships that discuss in detail the provision of back-office support for nonprofit partners. Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) is a nonprofit public health institute that creates and sustains healthier communities using best practices to improve community health through direct service, partnership, innovation, policy, research, technical assistance, and a prepared work force. Traditional back-office services are usually designed to address many of the challenges of today’s changing nonprofit environment. Services depend on the level of organizational need and affordability, but are usually identified through a comprehensive organizational assessment of the nonprofit client. The Urban Affairs Coalition (UAC) is a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that was founded in 1969 following a historic meeting between the city’s business and community leaders. Most nonprofits never rise to the scale of having a full internal administrative staff and purchased equipment.

This chapter focuses specifically on nursing research program vertical infrastructure. Vertical infrastructure refers to the pillars of the program: the foundation that provides the support to build other services. Three essential components are used to develop a solid nursing research program foundation that advances the scientific foundation of nursing practice and promotes integration of evidence-based practices. The three components are nurse researchers who coach or mentor clinical nurses in nursing research, intranet website resources, and a research departmental database. A successful nursing research program is contingent on having the right nurse researcher personnel who can move research from project inception to dissemination in peer-reviewed literature and translation into practice. Nurse leadership may benefit from educational programs or a business plan that includes the benefits of a nursing research program and information about how a specific nursing research program aligns with strategic goals.

Dorothea Lynde Dix was born into an upper-class, highly educated, intelligent, and politically connected Bostonian family. These opportunities provided the foundation necessary to propel her into a leadership role as national and international advocate for the most vulnerable groups in the mid-1800s. Dorothea utilized her Methodist father’s background to augment the teachings of her adopted religious calling, Unitarianism, which promises salvation through leading a directed life. This chapter explores her leadership role in this period of American history. It also shows how her family background, pursuit of education, personality, and religious commitment to humanitarianism enabled her to confront seemingly insurmountable obstacles to implement national and international reform of care for psychiatrically disabled and imprisoned populations. In the final phase of her career, Dorothea was chosen for a national role to lead nursing during the American Civil War, a role that she considered as within her scope of knowledge and skills.

This chapter explores how three successful nursing leaders, using different leadership approaches, demonstrate traditional leadership attributes such as strategic vision; risk-taking and creativity; interpersonal and communication effectiveness; and inspiring and leading change. It discusses the opportunities and implications for nursing leaders and those external to the profession to develop collaborative and transformative partnerships to advance quality health care. Pragmatic leaders demonstrate leadership excellence by effectively translating their nursing care assessment skills into the ability to approach organizational problem solving and decision making in a systematic, logical manner. In contrast to the present-needs focus of pragmatic leaders, charismatic leaders are vision-based leaders who predicate their leadership agenda on attaining future goals. Each of the three nursing leaders profiled understands the importance of being politically astute and effectively leveraging power and influence to make value-added contributions. To varying degrees, the various constituents of the nursing leaders profiled view them as socialized leaders.

Basic management and leadership skills are necessary for nurses in all levels of the organization. Leadership is a key standard of correctional nursing practice as defined by the American Nurses Association. As a licensed health care professional, nurses have a legal and ethical responsibility to appropriately delegate tasks within the health care team. The American Correctional Association (ACA) accreditation program is a voluntary accreditation process evaluating the service delivery of a correctional facility. National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC) standards are widely recognized as a basis for effective health service delivery in the correctional setting. The health care programs operated by Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) have been accredited under the ambulatory health care standards of The Joint Commission (TJC). Effecting organizational and clinical change through a structured process and attention to the human factors of change can move a clinical program forward, even in the challenging correctional environment.

As a clinical pharmacist, Al Patterson has shared-many experiences with nurses; he reflects on the key dimensions of nursing leadership and describes the similarities between the professions of pharmacy and nursing. He believes that nursing leaders recognize the societal responsibility inherent in their role, and the professional responsibility to provide the most meaningful care to each patient and to structure the environment to ensure safety and quality. There are several things that stand out to me as examples of the transformational nature of nursing leadership: patient advocacy, professional development, and most important, the focus on quality and safety. Initially many department leaders volunteered staff for quality advisor (QA) training, and over 160 teams were formed to address a wide array of problems. Central to the concepts of shared leadership/shared governance is the recognition that the profession must continually improve itself.

The second decade of the young publishing company brought several changes that pointed to the future characteristic of Springer Publishing Company. While the 1950s were strong in medical titles, combined with some nursing and important psychology titles, during the second decade of the young company, a clear shift is noticeable: only 5 books on medical topics, 4 on veterinary topics, and 13 in psychology came out, but 20 new nursing books were published. Very little expenses for promotion were required as most of the customers were subscribers and agricultural machinery and equipment dealers who sold the books to their farmer customers. Books on leadership techniques, on clinical teaching, were joined by such titles as The Nurse and Her Problem Patient by Gertrude Ujhely, Perspectives on Clinical Teaching by Dorothy Smith, New Directions for Nurses and Issues in Nursing by Bonnie Bullough, and more on similar levels.

The author, Arthur G. Cosby speaks about his mother, Lillie Mae Mclntire Cosby; a nurse who led him to understand what constitutes leadership, his responsibilities to others, and the role of women in the modern world. In his mother’s mind, discipline was a critical aspect of good health care. As head nurse, she supervised large number of junior nurses, aids and orderlies, many of whom had limited formal health care training. It was very important to him that he had a mother who could do so many things and do them well. Not only was she a mother and nurturer, she was also a woman who was the breadwinner, who could successfully carry out most any job even the most difficult. Over the course of her career, she actively carried out the health care responsibilities of head nurse, hospital administrator, emergency room nurse, obstetrics nurse, public health nurse and nurse practitioner.

Karen Gross shares eight lessons learned about leadership that occurred not from leading per se but from the process of hiring an academic nursing leader. The search now successfully concluded gave her an opportunity to reflect on what type of health care leader they were seeking at Southern Vermont College (SVC). Although not a health care professional, she spent more than 15 months thinking about leadership in the context of nursing. The whole search process from creating the job description to identifying a quality candidates’ pool to interviewing and ultimately selecting a divisional chair to helping the successful candidate see the fit with the institution allowed her to consider what qualities are critical to nursing leadership within the academy. In an interesting way, the search for a leader in nursing enabled her to think more effectively about leadership, and in the world of unintended consequences, made her a better leader.

Nurse leaders should be poised for change. One of the common themes across entries was that nurses are central to the changes occurring in health care and that they should seize the opportunities to be in charge of the redesign of the U.S. health care system. There was another strong theme that permeated the entries: that of the knowledge necessary for nurse leaders in health care delivery. To assume leadership roles in a new delivery system, nurse leaders are advised to understand policy and finance and the roles of all team members. Furthermore, leadership must be about the organizational goals, not one’s individual goals. Self-knowledge is essential, including the understanding of how you are reflected in the eyes of others. A high level of self-confidence is essential for leadership. Other important developmental needs for nurse leaders include quantitative skills and technological expertise, including electronic and digital forms of communication.