Building Healthcare Leadership Capacity: Strategy, Insights and Reflections.

The Dorothy Wylie Health Leaders Institute is a Canadian success story, providing leadership development to over 2,600 nurses and healthcare professionals since its inception in 2001.The authors describe the original design and intent of the Institute and its evolution over the last 18 years as both the context for leadership and leadership requirements have evolved. The Institute's framework, key features, principles, concepts and streams of learning are outlined along with summaries of research on personal and organizational impact.

Testing the effects of an empowerment-based leadership development programme: part 2 - staff outcomes.

Aim: To determine if nurse leaders' attendance at a leadership development programme based on an empowerment framework would increase staff perceptions of organisational support and organisational commitment.

Background: Leadership empowering behaviours are teachable relational competencies that have been associated with quality leader-staff relationships and positive staff outcomes.

Methods: A quasi-experimental, pre-test-post-test design was used to compare perceptions of staff whose leaders participated in a year-long leadership programme with staff of similar leaders who did not attend the programme.

Testing the effects of an empowerment-based leadership development programme: part 1 - leader outcomes.

Aim: To determine if a leadership development programme based on an empowerment framework significantly increased leaders' use of empowering behaviours.

Background: Leadership programmes are effective ways to prepare nurse leaders for their complex roles. Relational competencies, such as leader empowering behaviours, are associated with improved leader, staff and practice environment outcomes.

An empowerment framework for nursing leadership development: supporting evidence.

Aim: This article is a report on a descriptive study of nurse leaders' perspectives of the outcomes of a formal leadership programme.

Background: Effective nurse leaders are necessary to address complex issues associated with healthcare systems reforms. Little is known about the types of leadership development programmes that most effectively prepare nurse leaders for healthcare challenges.

An integrated approach to change leadership.

Leading change has become one of the essential core competencies of health professionals today. Since 2001, the authors have been the key designers and facilitators of the Dorothy Wylie Nursing Leadership Institute (DMW-NLI). The background, key characteristics and benefits of the DMW-NLI have been described in detail elsewhere (Simpson et al.