Blueprint for nursing leadership: creating a culture of accountability.

Our "Blueprint for Nursing Leadership" emerged from dialogue with our nurse leaders on the daily challenges that managers encounter with competing and compelling priorities in the increasingly complex health care environment. Recognizing this as a transformational opportunity, the reorganized nurse executive council members were invited to a leadership retreat to further explore this topic. From this dialogue, 3 key components, distributed responsibility, nonstop skill development, and accountability became the framework on which the "Blueprint for Nursing Leadership" was created. The blueprint is to empower, engage, and sustain a culture of accountability.