As a white nurse, it's hard for me to appreciate fully the barriers that African American nurses have confronted. Yet we are fortunate that they refused to accept their place in America's apartheid. In The Soul of Leadership: Journeys in Leadership and Achievement with Distinguished African American Nurses, author Hattie Bessent, EdD, MSN, RN, FAAN, presents the remarkable stories of leadership and achievement of 11 African American nurses.
This book demonstrates that leaders are not measured by the number of diplomas on their walls or the size of their bank accounts. Rather, they're distinguished by a certain confidence and clarity of vision and of purpose.
Bessent was the first black nurse in Jacksonville, Florida, to run a psychiatric unit and the first black woman and nurse on faculty and the first tenured at the University of Florida. And she understood that these firsts were not for her alone. Indeed, Hattie Bessent's name has become synonymous with mentor to many African American nurses. For many years, she served as the director of the Minority Fellowship Program at the American Nurses Association. She guided, cajoled, mentored, and otherwise encouraged a generation of ethnic minority nurses to become leaders. Talk with any nurse profiled in The Soul of Leadership and you'll hear about commitments made because of this woman's wise counsel and high expectations.
Bessent returned to Jacksonville as director of the Leadership Enhancement and Development Project, funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, and realized that "training and getting a good job was not enough." She saw that her new students "needed lifelong mentoring, they needed role models, and they needed to aspire to leadership positions." And so, with the support and funding of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, she has produced The Soul of Leadership.
The book sells for $35 and may be ordered from Hattie Bessent by e-mail ([email protected]) or mail (5622 Sophist Circle South, Jacksonville, FL 32219). Proceeds are donated to the National Black Nurses Association, the American Academy of Nursing, and the Nurses Educational Funds.
Diana J. Mason, PhD, RN, FAAN, editor-in-chief