This chapter opens with the challenge Nightingale and her close colleagues faced in establishing nursing as a profession when the ethical standards of the existing (secular) nurses were (generally) so low. The ethical issues she had to deal with in her own school, soon after it opened, are discussed three thorny problems with appointments. Anyone reading Nightingale’s writing on nursing will be struck by how often and how forcefully she insisted on high ethical standards. The reason for the emphasis on ethical standards is obvious enough in the task Nightingale faced in raising the new profession from its disreputable past. The International Council on Nursing (ICN) established its Code of Ethics in 1953, again based on Nightingale principles. It identified four responsibilities: to promote health, to prevent illness, to restore health, and to alleviate suffering. The code asks nurses not only to act ethically themselves, but to challenge unethical practices.

The author, Martin Alpert, presents a method by which individual nurses can be independent, improve patient care, have fun, and earn more money. He proposes that the nursing profession become the leader in a shift to sustainable, least invasive therapies and evaluations (LITE). LITE represents a major profit opportunity for nurses. Many of these new therapies require medical professionals, but not necessarily doctors. They can be administered by dedicated and trained nurses. The impact of LITE on the global society of nursing leading this area of medicine could be transformational for nursing, medicine, and society. Nursing could lead in diagnosis and treatment under the LITE paradigm. Acupuncture is becoming part of conventional therapy. It can be a part of nursing practice. Recently, the World Health Organization estimated that 80” of people worldwide rely on herbal medicines for some part of their primary health care.

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.

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.

This chapter talks about mentor intelligence as a source of excellence. In order to perform successfully in a complex profession like nursing, there are beginning threshold requirements such as intellectual intelligence (IQ) and specialized knowledge and skills. Further, it is thought that working at a high level of excellence in one’s field requires emotional intelligence. However, the lack of Mentor Intelligence presents major impediments in developing one’s full potential to the highest level. The chapter provides ten tips for raising nurse’s mentor intelligence. The tips include such as cultivating the three ingredients of Mentor Intelligence, practicing nursing profession in a culture of mentorship and collegiality, sharpening nurse’s communication skills and their message, networking, becoming a mentor-leader, and being a “forever” student of mentoring, and developing the art of mentoring others. Three ingredients of Mentor Intelligence include mentoring mentality; mentoring lens; and mentoring momentum.

The increasingly more complex, diverse, and interdisciplinary facets of the health care system prompted the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to join together and assess the current state of health care, thus issuing a “call to action” by the nursing profession. This monumental report challenges nurses to practice to the full extent of their training, transform health care and improve research and information systems. The heightened roles of the professional nurse allow nurses of all practices to more fully develop their leadership skills. The author’s, Greer Glazer, personal and professional life changed when she was notified by the RWJENF Program that she was a finalist for their leadership program. Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) programs are designed to prepare nurses for the highest level of leadership in practice that is innovative, evidence based, and reflects application of research.

Kate Judge’s first glimpse of nursing leadership in action came the day she arrived at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing for an in-person interview to lead Penn Nursing’s development and alumni relations program. During her 8 years at Penn Nursing, she collaborated with a number of faculty members who were gifted in attracting philanthropy. Leadership in philanthropy combines a deep personal moral purpose and the perfect balance between impatience for immediate impact and a desire to achieve long-term outcomes. To be a nurse leader in philanthropy, one must expose oneself to other values, interests, and priorities. Nursing can assume a larger role in tomorrow’s health care delivery if it commands a larger portion of U.S. and global philanthropy. Finally, to be leaders in philanthropy, nurses need to educate themselves about the larger world and the values and issues that resonate with donors.

This chapter presents what it means to be a professional nurse, the difference between a career and an occupation, the seasons and stages of a nursing career, and the value of collegiality in a nursing career. Professional nurses are expected to expand their knowledge and expertise throughout the different stages of their careers in order to provide safe comprehensive health services to the public in accordance with contemporary best practices. The chapter highlights the key elements of professional nursing as described in Nursing’s Social Policy Statement, Code of Ethics for Nurses, Nursing: Scope & Standards of Practice, and a State Nurse Practice Act. All life and career developmental models acknowledge the central importance of support persons in the life and career journey of every human being. Professional nurses demonstrate collegiality with each other by respecting, mentoring, and advocating for nursing students and nursing colleagues.

This chapter presents how to create a Personal Mentor Action Plan, types of mentors and where to find them, selection process of the mentor and the protégé, and how to inventory individuals and groups as potential mentors. The elements of this Action Plan are vision and goals, mentoring strategies, implementation activities, and mentoring outcomes. Potential mentors can be found at nurse’s workplace, conferences, classrooms, clinical units, meetings, and conventions. Two main types of mentor relationships will boost nurse’s career development: relationships that are “chosen” by the mentor and protégé, and relationships in which mentors and protégés are “matched” or assigned in a formalized program. “Assigned” mentors are found in on-the-job mentor programs, professional associations, specialty nursing organizations, and community volunteer programs. Currently, professional nursing and student associations are very proactive in offering formal mentor programs that address their members’ needs in various ways.