Abstract
This article is meant to spur debate on the role of the professional nurse in care coordination as well as the role of nursing leaders for defining and leading to a future state. This work highlights the opportunity and benefits associated with transformation of professional nursing practice in response to the mandates of the Affordable Care Act of 2010. An understanding of core concepts and the work of care coordination are used to propose a model of care coordination based on the population health pyramid. This maximizes the roles of nurses across the continuum as transformational leaders in the patient/family and nursing relationship. The author explores the role of the nurse in a transactional versus transformational relationship with patients, leading to actualization of the nurse in care coordination. Focusing on the role of the nurse leader, the challenges and necessary actions for optimization of the professional nurse role are explored, using principles of transformational leadership.