Future ready: Strengthening oncology nursing leadership in the context of professional oncology nursing organizations

Every nurse is a leader. Rather than being situated only within a traditional leadership role or title, nursing leadership is about critical thinking, action and advocacy across all roles, practice settings and domains of nursing practice. When high-quality nursing leadership is enacted, positive patient, provider and system outcomes are demonstrated (Cummings et al., 2010; National Expert Commission, 2012; Wong, Cummings & Ducharme, 2013). Leadership begins in undergraduate education and continues throughout one’s career. Nursing leadership in this context is about looking beyond nursing, as a series of scientific acts of caring that can change individual lives, to include lifelong commitment to political action for system change. It requires nurses to lift their gaze from focusing only on individuals to populations, and from the local to global context (Canadian Nurses Association, 2009; Institute of Medicine, 2011; International Council of Nurses, 2016; National Expert Commission, 2012)