Perspectives on global nursing leadership: international experiences from the field.

AIM: Nursing leaders from six countries engaged in a year-long discussion on global leadership development. The purpose of these dialogues was to strengthen individual and collective capacity as nursing leaders in a global society. Field experiences in practice and education were shared. Perspectives on global leadership can strengthen nurses' contributions to practice, workplace and policy issues worldwide. BACKGROUND: Transformational leadership empowers nurses' increasing confidence. Mentoring is needed to stimulate leadership development but this is lacking in many settings where nurses practice, teach and influence policy. Organizations with global mission provide opportunity for nurses' professional growth in leadership through international dialogues. PROCEDURES: Dialogues among participants were held monthly by conference calls or videoconferences. Example stories from each participant illustrated nursing leadership in action. From these exemplars, concepts were chosen to create a framework. Emerging perspectives and leadership themes represented all contexts of practice, education, research and policy. The cultural context of each country was reflected in the examples. RESULTS: Themes emerged that crossed global regions and countries. Themes were creativity, change, collaboration, community, context and courage. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING AND HEALTH POLICY: Relationships initially formed in professional organizations can be extended to intentionally facilitate global nursing leadership development. Exemplars from the dialogues demonstrated nursing leadership in health policy development within each cultural context. Recommendations are given for infrastructure development in organizations to enhance future collaborations.

How obstetric/gynecologic nurse practitioners make practice changes: a national study.

A national study to determine how obstetric/gynecologic nurse practitioners (OGNPs) make practice change was conducted. A random sample of 1000 currently certified OGNPs was surveyed. Results indicated that continuing education meetings were primary sources of practice change information. Other important sources included discussion with physicians and other NP colleagues, as well as nursing and medical journals. The survey results indicate that continuous learning for practice change is occurring and that a variety of sources are used to assist OGNPs in keeping their practice activities current.

Use of Brazelton neonatal behavioral assessment in planning care for parents and newborns.

Clinical descriptions of newborn behaviors in the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale can be used by the nurse in planning parent-infant care. Four clusters of behaviors--interactive processes, motoric processes, organizational processes of state control, and organizational processes of physiologic response to stress--have been delineated and infants can be rated as good, poor, or average in each cluster. Nursing interventions are described for both low-risk and high-risk parent-infant pairs.