Professional Governance for Nursing: the Framework for Accountability, Engagement, and Excellence

Nurses are professionally accountable to improve the health of patients and populations alike. Sustaining behavioral change is impossible unless structural change enables it. A common professional framework is needed in all practice settings to formalize the voice of nurse’s ownership and accountability for practice decision-making related to clinical problems and solutions, forming practice policy, and pursuing solutions affecting health outcomes and advancing the quality of healthcare. Published in partnership with AONL, Professional Governance for Nursing: The Framework for Accountability, Engagement, and Excellence expertly covers concepts, roles, application, and demonstration of professional governance that facilitates the nurse’s role in advancing the impact and value of nursing care across all health settings. This nursing book informs and deepens understanding of the centrality of nursing professional governance in addressing contemporary issues affecting nursing practice. The editors and contributors utilize their extensive scholarship and experience as nurse leaders to provide examples of professional behaviors that exemplify the importance and impact of nursing professional governance across all clinical settings and roles.This unique text also equips organizations with professional governance strategies and tools to achieve exemplary, ongoing practice transformation, with tactics to support innovation and programs of excellence. With a focus on effective management and clinical leadership behavior Professional Governance for Nursing: The Framework for Accountability, Engagement, and Excellence provides the necessary tools for nurse leaders to create an environment in which nurses can practice with expertise, accountable to advance care and collaborate in the continuing transformation of health care. In today’s high stakes health care environment, the path forward for nursing must be to realize full power to lead and improve service.

Dr. Rachel Start is a champion for professional governance as well as the evolution of nursing practice in the ambulatory environment. Her engagement and leadership of initiatives within state, national and international organizations has been driven by a desire to see nursing realize its full contribution across settings. She has significantly advanced the field of ambulatory care nurse sensitive measurement, having led the national development of nurse sensitive indicators (NSI). Rachel was co-chair of the American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing (AAACN) Nurse Sensitive Indicator Taskforce and the lead editor on the 1st and 2nd editions of the Ambulatory Care Nurse-Sensitive Indicator Industry Report: Meaningful Measurement of Nursing in the Ambulatory Patient Care Environment (2016 & 2024). Most recently she concluded her term as the President of the AAACN Board of Directors. She has published and presented extensively on the imperative for meaningful measurement and nursing practice advancement as related to the shifting healthcare landscape at numerous national venues. She has consulted with numerous organizations related to nursing practice, professional governance, Magnet principles and innovative care delivery models and emergent roles within nursing.

Dr. Beverly Hancock is an expert in leadership and organizational development and has created innovative, comprehensive programming, resources, and opportunities to develop national and global leaders in all nursing roles. Her passion is to improve health through expert nursing leadership, combining her expertise in leadership development with her desire to advancing nurses' understanding of topics such as nursing professional governance, leadership practice, and professional practice excellence. She has presented widely and published on the topics of leadership development, nursing professional governance, and environments of excellence. She began her involvement in professional governance 40 years ago at Rush University Medical Center serving in a variety of positions in Rush's Professional Nursing Staff nursing governance organization. While the Senior Director for Leadership Development at the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL) she created a professional development program to develop leadership skills needed for a thriving professional governance and continues on the core team responsible for planning and executing the annual AONL Professional Governance Leadership Conference. She is an assistant professor at Rush University College of Nursing and the director of the Transformative Leadership DNP: Systems program.

Dr. Tim Porter-O'Grady has been a nurse for 52 years and is currently a Clinical Professor at Emory University, School of Nursing. He is an international health consultant nationally/internationally recognized as an expert/futurist in clinical health systems, nursing leadership, nursing professional governance, and health systems innovation. Tim is an advanced practice nurse, board certified in geriatrics and wound specialties and holds two earned doctorates, one in learning behavior and another in complex systems leadership. He has been Clinical Professor, Leadership Scholar at The Ohio State University, College of Nursing and Professor and Innovations Scholar at Arizona State University College of Nursing and Health Innovation, and is currently a Clinical Professor at Emory University, School of Nursing. Dr. Porter-O'Grady has consulted with over 300 clinical systems world-wide and has lectured at over 800 settings globally. He has authored/co-authored 31 books and over 250 journal publications and is a 10-time winner of the AJ N "Book of the Year Award". 'Tim has received numerous awards including the American Organization of Nurse Leaders Lifetime Achievement Award, American Nurses Association Luther Christman Health Leadership Award, the American Association of Critical Care Nurses Healthcare Pioneer Award, the American Academy of Nursing, President's Award, and is a 2020 inductee into the ANA Nursing Hall of Fame and a 2022 inaugural inductee into the Georgia Nurses Hall of Fame.'