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.

This chapter focuses on the following topics: demography, gender, age at diagnosis/onset of cardiovascular disease (CVD), Medicare usage, work and retirement, social support, social context and neighborhoods, ethnography of families, qualitative research, and social policy. These topics constitute some of the key areas that should be the focus of future research on the sociology of minority aging. The chapter provides a rich description of trends in the ethnic and racial composition of older cohorts to illustrate the dramatic changes that have taken place in the United States in the past century. The rising costs of health care and the increasing older minority population, additional reform will be needed to maintain the sus-tainability of the program. Additional work examining within-race group differences is key to understanding minority aging issues given the large amount of cultural diversity in the United States.

Neurorehabilitation has become more of a global phenomenon and is not necessarily limited to industrialized or Westernized societies. Culture often connotes concepts of race and ethnicity when discussed in the context of health care disparities. Socioeconomic and other demographic variables make up the majority of the balance on discussion regarding culture in health care. Multicultural neurorehabilitation must emphasis “multiple”, and do so in a dynamic manner. In other words, at any given time, multiple cultures operate in each interaction and in each therapy delivered in the neurorehabilitation setting. Recently, there has been increased interest and research into the newly developing field of cultural neuroscience. Several models are available to conceptualize the influence of culture in human functioning. The most persuasive model is one that mirrors a dynamic, ecological system.

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.

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.

Steven A. Wartman, the author, provides key advice for potential and aspiring nurse leaders. He advises to let go of the guild mentality, particularly important for nurses who aspire to leadership positions that transcend nursing. Nurse’s perspectives are invaluable in bridging the gap between the technical experience of health care and its meaning in the lives of patients and their families. Nurse leaders are advised to become transformational rather than transactional leaders, and to move beyond the rewards and punishments inherent in transactional leadership styles. Transformational leadership is especially challenging, given the traditional hierarchies in the medical fields and academia. To provide the most effective and “transformational” leadership, potential nurse leaders should focus their efforts on four areas: eliminate the “guild mentality”; change restrictive policies and regulations that weaken the role of nursing; seek to become a “transformational” leader; and learn to take the ego out of the job.

This chapter provides a review of public policy and public programs related to important aspects of the welfare state in the United States, with particular attention to the impact of various policies and programs related to income support, health care, and housing on low-income and minority Americans. It focuses on the guiding principles that motivate the various parties in today’s welfare state debates and investigate how the basic structure of the way social welfare is guaranteed in the United States affects low-income and minority individuals. The chapter also focuses on the general features of our economic, political, and social systems that place minority Americans at serious risk of poverty and ill health throughout life, including its waning years. The welfare state represents a relatively late development in human social, economic, and political history. Social Security is particularly important for minority Americans.

Nonprofit, for-profit, and hybrid organizations with the greatest impact in areas such as education, health care, and social service delivery could also create new social industries and spur economic development. Angel investors are often the first professional lenders who provide financial support to a growing business. Launched in the United Kingdom, social impact bonds (SIBs) raise funds from nongovernment investors, that is, trusts and foundations, high-net-worth individuals, and so forth, to pay for preventive services. Greater levels of funding will be directed to organizations next-generation nonprofits (next-gens) that can prove impact and take operations to scale. This chapter discusses two very different innovations that are also sustainable business models, the retail-based convenient care clinics (CCCs) and the Apple iPad2. CCCs operate under different names, including Minute Clinic, Redi-Clinic, Take Care Health Systems, and Quick Quality Care. The Disrupter-o-Meter is an excellent, low-cost place to begin determining an innovative idea’s feasibility.

Sexual abuse can create sensitivities and problems that infiltrate a person’s sexuality years after the actual trauma occurred. A Guide for Survivors of Sexual Abuse provides basic information and recovery strategies for helping survivors of military sexual trauma (MST) overcome the repercussions of abuse and establish healthy and pleasurable sensual lives. Sexual healing tends to be more advanced recovery work. Sexual behavioral changes often seem to fall into two extremes, withdrawing from sexual activity, or becoming compulsively drawn to engaging in it. Victims of MST may have a challenging time finding enough private space, social support, and safety to face what happened to them and begins healing. Initial recovery tasks, such as dealing with fear of the offender, overcoming depression, expressing anger, improving physical care, improving assertiveness skills, and coping with posttraumatic stress symptoms are fundamental to sexual abuse recovery.

Field education is an integral aspect of every social work student’s training. Whether a student is obtaining a bachelor’s degree in social work (BSW) in the hope of pursuing a career in generalist practice or working toward a master’s degree in social work (MSW) to prepare for advanced or independent work, learning skills and practice techniques in community settings is essential. The work that is performed by students in the field is supervised by social workers in many different organizational and practice settings. The relationship between the field instructor and the social work student provides fertile ground for socialization as a member of a profession and the acquisition of practice skills. Whether we are working in health care, child protection, mental health services, corrections, education, gerontology, or another area of social work practice, we have much important knowledge to share with a student.