This award-winning text guides nursing graduate students in developing the key skills they need to fulfill emerging leadership roles as our health care system experiences profound change and increasing complexity. The book provides a wealth of critical information, practical tools, creative vision, and inspiration that will help to facilitate leadership at the highest level of clinical practice. This second edition is expanded and updated to incorporate leadership challenges resulting from health care reform, changes in the current vision of health care, and innovations that foster leadership development. Two completely new chapters address transformational leadership regarding changing health care perspectives and emerging contexts for health care.

The text helps graduate students to master the skills they need to work effectively with interdisciplinary colleagues, address challenges within the confines of budget constraints, and resolve health care disparities and improve outcomes in all settings. With contributions from expert scholars and clinicians in the humanities, natural and social sciences, organizational studies, business, nursing, and other health care sciences, this inspirational text fulfills the DNP core competencies as described in the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Essentials of DNP Education.

New to the Second Edition:

• Updated and expanded to incorporate new leadership challenges resulting from health care reform
• Expands the scope of leadership to encompass emerging health care contexts, transformation of vision, and practice innovations


• Includes a new chapter addressing transformative leadership vis-à-vis changing health care perspectives


• Presents a new chapter describing emerging contexts for health care and how to build a respectful culture in which emerging leaders can thrive
• Includes updated tools, health care paradigms, and leadership inspiration


• Presents cases and reflective questions that help students apply the theoretical content to their own situations and generate discussion across cohorts of students

Key Features:

• Written expressly for APRNs transitioning into leadership roles
• Grounded in competencies and essentials of doctorate education for advanced nursing practice
• Traces the trajectory from expert clinician to role of leader of complex organizations and patient populations
• Draws from experts in the humanities, natural and social sciences, business, nursing, and health care