Conversations With Leaders [horizontal ellipsis] Frank Talk From Nurses (and Others) on the Front Lines of Leadership, Tine Hansen-Turton, Susan Sherman, and Vernice Ferguson. Indianapolis, Ind: Sigma Theta Tau International, 2007. 206 pages, soft cover, $29.95, http://www.nursingknowledge.org/STTI/books.
The cover of this book grabs you immediately. It is a huge old tree set on the green plains with a blue sky and white clouds behind it. The art invites you immediately to open the pages, sit down, and become connected. You quickly find out that this book is an outcome of an existing informal meeting of nurse leaders and others in Philadelphia, Pa. This group invites nursing deans, cabinet officials, judges, foundation CEOs, community health center directors, politicians and policy makers, advanced practice nurses, and leaders of 25 nurse managed centers.
The book is divided into 6 sections, each representing a key component of what leadership is: Inspiring, Challenging, Collaborative, Intentional, Transformative, and Visionary. The authors address these key components through interviews and essay. The 22 leaders are Marla Salmon, Vernice Fergusen, Honorable Phyllis Beck, Dr William Warfel, Barbara Nichols, Veneta Masson, Beverly Malone, Jill Derstine, Alaf Meleis, Sally Peck Lundeen, Salvatore Tagliareni, Jane Eisner, Colleen Conway-Welch, Susan Sherman, Gloria Smith, Connie Carino, Terry Fulmer, Tine Hansen-Turton, Jean Watson, Angela Barron McBride, and Patricia Wallenbach.
Each chapter begins with a quote from that leader. Let me share some of my favorites from this book: "We are talking about 'Big Nursing'. Coin the phrase. Make it yours. Use it, and you will be provided the opportunity to explain what the term means to whose who need to know" (Vernice Ferguson, p 17). "When you are a nurse, there is no limit to what you can be" (William Warfel, PhD, RN, CNAA, p 31).
Nursing engages in a life-death journey, participates in birthing-living-suffering-playing-loving-dying as the very fabric of human existence. The moral and visionary compass for my journey comes not from the head but from the heart. It consists of me following the story line already laid out from our ancestors, our visionaries from the past, nevertheless a story line needing to be picked up again for this postmodern time, reconstructed anew, in order to navigate through the troubled times of the latter part of the 20th century and now into the 21st century and a new millennium. (Jean Watson, p 173)
If you enjoy stories and conversations or if you want to hear what these people in Philadelphia are talking about, you will enjoy this book. In addition, you may be inspired to create small gatherings of healthcare professionals and others in your community.