Business Education for Nurse Leaders: A Case Study of Leadership Development in a Vital, Highly Gendered Industry

In the U.S. and globally, the current shortage of nurses could have crippling effects on health care systems, yet within healthcare nurses are the most underserved by developmental opportunities, especially in terms of organizational leadership and business-related education. To address this gap, we developed a program focused on the cultivation of executive mindset and enterprise-level organizational knowledge and skills in nurse leaders, under the auspices of the executive education division in a business school. Since inception, we have delivered the program three times, and feedback from participating nurse leaders and their organizations indicates that the program is successful as evidenced by post-program evaluation, demand for future program offerings, and discussions about creating additional versions of the program. In this chapter, we explore some of the issues that confront nurses moving into leadership in healthcare, summarize program curricula and delivery, and present evidence that the program results in participants becoming more effective in leading strategic initiatives and organizational change projects at system, organization, and team levels