Leadership and Influencing Change in Nursing

Leadership and Influencing Change in Nursing is designed for a single-semester introduction to the professional nurse’s leadership role as both a care provider and a formal leader. Nursing students will take this course in their third year as they prepare to assume a professional nursing role within the clinical health care environment. An assortment of authors with diverse nursing leadership roles across Saskatchewan and Canada have contributed to this textbook. These diverse voices are focused on providing student nurses with the foundational tools, techniques, and knowledge required to empower them to meet the leadership challenges found within the ever-changing Canadian health care environment. Assembling this information using an online format allows for the material to be updated regularly so as to keep pace with the rapid expansion of knowledge.
The specific goals of this textbook are:

• to ensure the information is relevant to Saskatchewan nursing students,
• to tailor the content to nursing students’ needs for both practical knowledge and theoretical knowledge,
• to provide up-to-date, evidence-informed content on nursing leadership,
• to thread Indigenous content throughout the textbook, and
• to tailor the textbook to the curriculum.

Approach and Pedagogy

This open access textbook introduces you to concepts related to leadership and the ability to influence change in the nursing profession. Essential theory and readings will be provided. The authors offer real-life management wisdom that is derived from a combination of clinical practice and evidence-based knowledge obtained through research. This wisdom will assist you in developing essential critical thinking skills that will enable you to make critical leadership decisions based on evidence-informed best practice. The authors will continue to work to ensure that the readings provided in this textbook contain the most up-to-date and relevant information. Since this is an open textbook, content will be reviewed and updated annually to ensure that the predetermined critical learning elements and outcomes are met for the course in which it is used. Instructors may assign additional readings in their classes in order to enrich your learning. Each chapter begins with a significant leadership quotation relevant to the chapter content. Key terms throughout the chapters are highlighted in bold.
Coloured boxes are used in each chapter to differentiate and highlight important learning features (see diagram below).

The Learning Objectives set out at the beginning of each chapter provide a guide to chapter contents and structure to your learning.

Three types of textboxes in each chapter offer important information:

From the Field textboxes provide wise words from nurse leaders.

Research Notes demonstrate how each chapter is evidence-based and provide you with links to important academic research that further explores the critical topics addressed in each chapter.

Essential Learning Activities in each chapter include links to important resources. These Essential Learning Activities may also include podcasts from chapter authors that have been developed for this textbook. The authors have chosen to provide you with links to source documents and videos, rather than summarizing or restating the contents of these important resources. These Essential Learning Activities are an integral part of the chapter content and will provide you with an in-depth understanding of contemporary issues within the nursing profession. It is important to review the sources offered in Essential Learning Activities and complete the accompanying questions. These questions require you to apply critical thinking and synthesize new knowledge. The information within these links is an essential component of your course work. This important information will not be provided elsewhere within the textbook.