National League for Nursing Holds Leadership Conference Transforming Leadership to Advance Health: Who Will Answer the Call? University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, January 7-8, 2011

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Linda Burnes Bolton

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE / CALENDAR LISTING

New York, NY — November 5, 2010 — In the wake of the far-reaching Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded report by the Institute of Medicine calling on nurses and nurse educators to transform health care cost, delivery, and access, the National League for Nursing has taken up the baton. Nursing deans, faculty, and other program administrators committed to transformative leadership roles are invited to the NLNs annual Leadership Conference at the William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education in Chapel Hill, NC, January 7-8.

Transforming Leadership to Advance Health: Who Will Answer the Call? will pick up where the IOM report, Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, leaves off, asking how, in practical terms, thought leaders in nursing can translate the reports recommendations for nursing education into action. Linda Burnes Bolton, DrPH, RN, FAAN, who, with former US secretary of health and human services, Donna Shalala, co-chaired the committee that researched and issued the IOM report, will deliver the keynote speech. Her presentation, at 9:00 am on Friday, January 7, Leading the Way: Who Will Answer the Call?, will be followed by a conversation on the theme of the conference with NLN CEO Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN.

Dr. Malone will take the podium twice again later that day, first at 1:15 pm in a plenary session entitled Leading with Passion, and then at 3:15 to sum up with Building Consensus: What Are the Top 10 Issues that Emerged Today?

In concurrent sessions throughout the two-day gathering, participants will examine in-depth issues related to organizational systems; leadership processes; the politics of workplace environments; academic-practice partnerships; and the role of public policy in advancing leadership. They will hear more from national experts about the impact of the RWJF-IOM report, as they focus on strategic planning, diversity, and inclusion, and developing personal career plans to advance in organizational leadership.

"As a privileged participant earlier this year in the process that led to the preparation of the RWJF-IOM report, the NLN takes seriously its responsibility to continue the conversation that, based on the NLNs core values of caring, integrity, diversity, and excellence, will lead to transformation of Americas health care and therefore, a more secure future for our nation," said NLN president Cathleen Shultz, PhD, RN, CNE, FAAN.

Added Dr. Malone: "As noted in the RWJF-IOM report, nurse educators have a critical role to play in the re-imagined 21st-century health care landscape. In convening this conference, the NLN is responding to a sense of urgency felt by all stakeholders."

Dr. Shultz and Dr. Malone were among those invited to "The Forum on the Future of Nursing: Education," the third in a series of high-level meetings convened by the RWJF and the IOM, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences. The NLN was one of only 12 pre-selected organizations tapped to offer written and oral testimony outlining the NLNs vision of the future of nursing.

The NLN Leadership Conference is part of an overall leadership initiative, "The NLN Leadership Institute." Its goal is to help develop the leadership and management skills for nurse educators that are so in demand today.

For additional details and to register, go to
www.nln.org/facultydevelopment/Conferences/Leadership/index.htm.

Editors and reporters: For interview opportunities, please contact Karen R. Klestzick, chief communications officer of the NLN, at 212-812-0376 or kklestzick@nln.org.

Dedicated to excellence in nursing, the National League for Nursing is the premier organization for nurse faculty and leaders in nursing education offering faculty development, networking opportunities, testing services, nursing research grants, and public policy initiatives to its 33,000 individual and 1,200 institutional members.