When Lois Skillings, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, vice president of nursing and patient care services at Mid Coast Hospital, Brunswick, ME, was selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Nurse Executive Fellow for 2008, she joined an elite cadre of nurses in senior leadership positions preparing for influential roles in shaping the U.S. healthcare system of the future. 

The fellowship program sponsors semiannual seminars that bring together nurse leaders from health services, public/community health and nursing education who make a 3-year commitment to developing their expertise in five key competencies: interpersonal and communication effectiveness; risk-taking and creativity; self-knowledge; inspiring and leading change; and strategic vision.

As part of their work, the fellows design a personal development plan that incorporates self-awareness, complete a leadership project and select mentors.

"The fellowship has been such an amazing opportunity for me both personally and professionally," Skillings said. "It's almost a cliché, but it's like being part of the Verizon commercial with a large network through the program's national faculty, the National Advisory Committee (NAC), which is made up of role models who are nursing and healthcare legends, participants from the present and past cohorts, and national speakers who help me look at things in a new light."

Leadership Projects

Nelson Tuazon, MAEd, MBA, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, FACHE, senior vice president/chief nursing officer at East Orange General Hospital, East Orange, NJ, described his personal journey in the RWJF program: "Our first assignment was on self-awareness and included a 360-degree performance evaluation with input from the people who supervise us, those who are colleagues, and those we supervise.

"Based on the findings from that evaluation, we come up with a personal development plan. In my case, the areas I want to improve include negotiation, advocacy and team-building," he added.

Skillings described the importance of personal development for nurse executives: "Self-awareness is such a crucial part of any leader's role. Your willingness to understand your style, characteristics, strengths and weaknesses influences your participation on the healthcare team."

Skillings is excited about the impact she feels the fellowship will have on healthcare in Maine.

"I felt from the beginning this program needed to be good not only for my personal development, but also for the hospital and the community we serve," she said. "I'm developing 'our' leadership project focused on the role of leaders in improving quality and safety - a big topic! We'll seek two community hospitals in the U.S. who are outperforming us in terms of quality and safety, and do case studies to identify areas we could improve. We'll also deliver leadership and management development around quality and safety."

Tuazon's leadership project is to develop a Healthy Options Program Evaluation (HOPE) for outreach programs.

"HOPE will provide a cost-effectiveness analysis of community outreach programs offered by safety network hospitals, letting us know which programs give us the best return on investment and also meet the needs of the community," he said. "With this data, we can prioritize which programs will be the focus of our facility."

Linnea Windel, MSN, RN, president/CEO of the Visiting Nurse Association of Fox Valley, Aurora, IL, for her RWJF fellows project will integrate aspects of the two organizations she oversee - a Medicare-certified home care agency and a federally qualified health center. "My leadership project will be to create a healthcare home for older adults using the knowledge and expertise of home care nurses to manage that care," she said.

As the nurse executive in a 250-bed community teaching hospital that's part of a large integrated health system with 20 hospitals in the U.S. and others in Italy and Ireland, Susan Hoolahan, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, chief nursing officer/vice president of patient care services at UPMC St. Margaret, Pittsburgh, is focused on learning more about the big picture.

"One of the things that drew me to this fellowship program was the chance to center my leadership and development projects on integration and policy across the system, and gain exposure to the business aspects of healthcare and the international strategic initiatives," she said.