The focus on developing nurses as leaders is not a
new effort. The American Association of Colleges of
Nursing (AACN) has identified organizational and systems
leadership as 1 of the essential learning outcomes
for baccalaureate, master’s, and doctoral education.3
TheAmericanOrganization ofNurse Executives (AONE),
the only nursing organization with the sole focus on
nursing leadership, has spearheaded efforts around
nursing leadership, including offering 2 levels of certification
in nursing leadership. Nursing specialty organizations
such as the Oncology Nursing Society, the
AACN, and the Emergency Nurses Association have
created programs for leadership development and, along
with the American Nurse Credentialing Center, offer
certifications in leadership. The numbers of books and
manuscripts on nursing leadership have also increased
in recent years. A cursory search of the CINAHL database
using the search term ‘‘leadership development’’
yielded 109 publications from January 1, 1996, to
December 31, 2000; 316 from 2001 to 2005; and an
increase to 440 from 2006 to 2011.