A group of 48 registered nurses from across the state and from diverse areas of practice attended the fourth Louisiana Action Coalition (LAC) Nurse Leader Institute (NLI). Held in Baton Rouge, Jan. 8-12, the NLI offered five days of intense leadership training for emerging nurse leaders.

In its efforts to advance Recommendation 7 of the 2010 Institute of Medicine report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, LAC developed and launched the Nurse Leader Institute in 2015. The report serves as the foundation for the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action. Recommendation 7 states: Prepare and enable nurses to lead change to advance health.

“Developing nurse leaders is a leading objective for the Louisiana Action Coalition,” said Barbara Morvant, MN, RN, project director for the Nurse Leader Institute and LAC Core Leadership Team member. “This year’s group of participants was by far the largest and most diverse we’ve had, and I believe that shows the nursing community shares this objective.”

Faculty for the 2018 NLI included experts in the fields of budgeting, communication, recruitment and retention, staff performance, quality improvement and personal leadership skills. “Having knowledgeable presenters who are able to relate to the participants is key to the success of the program,” said Morvant.

Caroline G. Marceaux MS, RN, serves as a faculty member for the NLI. Marceaux, chief nursing officer at Acadia General Hospital, leads a segment about employee engagement.  She said, “I believe that developing people is the single best way to create great results, so investing in our growing nurse leaders transforms the roles they will take on in the future of healthcare.”

Charmaine Power, APRN and NLI participant, said, “The NLI was a tremendous opportunity to learn from important, impactful leaders in healthcare. The content was current, was communicated effectively and will be very useful to emerging leaders. As a new graduate of an MSN program in Executive Leadership, I was impressed with how relevant the content was for developing leadership expertise.”

Nurses who complete the NLI are encouraged to take the next step in their leadership journeys by participating in LAC’s Nurse Leader Mentorship Program, a nine-month program during which each is matched with an experienced nurse leader in his or her area of practice/interest. Those nurse leaders successfully completing both the Nurse Leader Institute and the Nurse Leader Mentorship Program are recognized by the Louisiana Nurses Foundation, Inc. as Nurse Leader Institute Fellows.

“What an amazing journey the week was for each of us individually and as a newly created team,” said Power. “I kept thinking about all of the nursing professionals I would recommend this program to next year!”

LAC plans to offer the NLI once each year in January. LAC leadership currently is considering ways to expand the program by offering segments separately in a variety of locations.

“Well over 130 nurses have attended the Nurse Leader Institute in the past three years, said Morvant. “The momentum related to nurse leadership development is building in our state, and we are proud to be contributing to that momentum.”

Marceaux said, “I still keep in touch with growing leaders from each and every cohort, and it’s always inspiring to learn something new from them that I can incorporate into my work.”

Development of the Nurse Leader Institute was funded by donations from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, Gifted Healthcare LLC and the Great 100 Nurses Foundation.