Take Me to Your Leader: Building Future Nurse Leaders
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This Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project involved the development of a nurse leadership program designed to support, nurture, and grow future nurse leaders for the Los Angeles Country Department of Health Services (DHS) at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center (RLANRC). This project aimed to develop a program that provided RLANRC nurses with the additional leadership education, support, and experience needed to transition into the anticipated future leadership vacancies within the organization. The program supported current national trends in nursing leadership development (Sherman et al., 2013). The program involved developing a leadership curriculum, supporting participants in the form of mentoring opportunities and follow up sessions, developing a charge nurse competency tool, revising the organization's charge nurse policy, creating a standardized charge nurse hand-off tool, and planning for the future development of supporting methods to address identified gaps in the leadership program. Participants were assessed by their nurse managers before program participation to determine leadership skill baselines and after the program completion to identify leadership skill growth. The participants' improvement and professional growth are scheduled to be evaluated annually to monitor performance. The program was successfully implemented and delivered positive outcomes for the participants and the organization.