Becoming a nurse faculty leader: Taking risks by being willing to fail.

Background: Higher education is undergoing rapid transformation requiring nurse faculty leaders to engage in risk taking. Consequently, what is known about the experience of taking risks? How do leaders decide what constitutes a risk worth taking? How do leaders who take risks tolerate failure? The purpose of this study was to explicate the leadership practices of risk taking in nurse faculty leaders.

Method: Interpretive phenomenology was used to explore the experience of risk taking among 15 self-identified nurse faculty leaders.

Becoming a nurse faculty leader: taking risks by doing the right thing.

Risk taking is a key aspect of academic leadership essential to meeting the challenges and opportunities in higher education. What are the practices of risk taking in nurse faculty leaders? This interpretive phenomenological study examines the experience and meaning of risk taking among nurse leaders. The theme of doing the right thing is brought forth through in-depth hermeneutic analysis of 14 individual interviews and two focus group narratives.

Becoming a nurse faculty leader: doing your homework to minimize risk taking.

Risk taking is an important aspect of academic leadership; yet, how does taking risks shape leadership development, and what are the practices of risk taking in nurse faculty leaders? This interpretative phenomenological study examines the meaning and experience of risk taking among formal and informal nurse faculty leaders. The theme of doing your homework is generated through in-depth hermeneutic analysis of 14 interview texts and 2 focus group narratives. The practice of doing one's homework is captured in weighing costs and benefits, learning the context, and cultivating relationships.

Barriers and strategies toward the implementation of a full-time faculty-at-a-distance nurse educator role.

Aim: The purpose of this two-phase exploratory, descriptive study was to uncover and describe barriers and potential strategies toward implementation of a full-time faculty-at-a-distance nurse educator (FDNE) role, with all responsibilities of instruction, governance, research, and student service, as perceived by hirers and potential hires.

Background: The faculty deficit has reached critical proportions that directly affect the nation's nursing workforce. There is a growing need to use nontraditional methods to reinforce, energize, and expand faculty capacity.

Becoming a nursing faculty leader.

Academic leaders are one component of a well-prepared faculty that is required to achieve and sustain excellent educational programs. But what is it like to become an academic leader? How does one become a leader? These questions were addressed in an interpretive study in which nurse faculty leaders were interviewed about the experience of becoming a leader. Interview texts were analyzed hermeneutically by a research team to uncover three themes (common, shared experiences): Being Thrust into Leadership, Taking Risks, and Facing Challenges, which are explicated in this article.

Undergraduate students as standardized patients to assess advanced practice nursing student competencies.

Evaluating clinical skills of students in an online distance education program can be challenging because of the diverse location of students. The authors describe a unique and cost-efficient method of using standardized patients to evaluate these skills. The project involved undergraduate students representing standardized patients for graduate advanced practice nurse students.