The Leadership Fusion Factor: Academic/Service Partnerships in Action

In talks and media presentations, Dr. Donna Shalala has said that, if fully implemented, the findings and recommendations noted in the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) report “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health” could signal nursing's ‘golden age.’1 The age would be golden because nursing has the human resources and intellectual capacity to meet emerging demands on the healthcare system, an orientation to patient-centered advocacy stretching from acute to community-based care, and the level of engagement to radically span the gaps in healthcare delivery that fragment the array of services Americans consider as their healthcare system. Shalala intentionally adds that leadership is the single critical factor in unleashing the full appreciation for what nursing will bring to health reformation and serve the public.