Preparing the next generation of nurse leaders in education, science, and practice: Lessons from four Robert Wood Johnson Foundation programs

Background

Recent articles have described the challenges in developing nurse leaders to advance nursing science, improve health, healthcare, and health equity, and build the next generation of nurses. Over the past 25 years, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has implemented many programs to develop nurse leaders to address these challenges.

Purpose

This article shares lessons learned from four RWJF programs and how the authors recommend those lessons can be applied today.

Methods

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has supported nursing leadership development for over fifty years. Discussion of four RWJF nursing programs including the Executive Nurse Fellows (1998–2017); the New Jersey Nursing Initiative (2009–2016); the Nurse Faculty Scholars (2007–2017) and the Future of Nursing Scholars (2013–2023) is used to highlight strategies and lessons learned.

Findings

Key lessons for developing the next generation of nurse leaders and strengthening the nurse leader pipeline include the importance of continuing leadership development over the course of one’s career; accelerating the nursing PhD to faculty pipeline; strong intentional mentoring; and building supportive communities to ensure long term impact.

Discussion

While these program examples had purposeful philanthropic funding, the lessons can also be implemented by building partnerships with federal agencies, philanthropy, and universities.