Big Challenges Meet Big Leadership in 2024.

Abstract

As we begin the year 2024, we do so with some very big challenges that have spilled over from 2023 and, indeed, many years before that. Every day, we are confronted with concerning experiential and research-based evidence about worsening access to healthcare, pervasive racism and widening disparities. Clearly, there is a great deal of work to be done in our healthcare system to support and improve the health of the diverse populations that we serve. Yet, along with the challenges come opportunities to reflect, collaborate, innovate, evaluate and learn. When I look at issues of the Canadian Journal of Nursing Leadership (CJNL) from the past 20 years, I am astounded at how some concerns have changed and some have remained the same. Can you believe that there was a time when nursing positions in practice and in education were actually being cut? Of course, many of the big issues we face today were emerging even then, and we have long since passed the tipping point that has put the country into a healthcare crisis.