Leadership Research.

Leadership research is often focused on the characteristics of the leader. Denehy (2008) outlined characteristics for school nurse leaders in a seminal editorial and pointed out that leadership is an acquired skill. She aptly stated ‘‘leadership isn’t for the other guy’’ (Denehy, 2008, p. 109). The scope and standards of school nursing practice highlight leadership as a responsibility of school nurses (American Nurses Association & National Association of School Nurses, 2011). More recently, a long-standing leadership framework identifying character, commitment, connectedness, compassion, and confidence (Kowwalski & Yoder-Wise, 2003) as the essential components of leadership was expanded to include courage and capacity (Weismuller, Willgerodt, McClanahan, & Helm-Remund, 2015). The American Academy of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) integrates leadership as a curricular thread throughout professional nursing education. The thread expands throughout the scope and sequence of all levels, including the baccalaureate, masters, and doctor of nursing practice. While the mandate is clear for AACN-accredited colleges of nursing, nurses’ education is often a patchwork of educational programs. Thus, there is no guarantee that all nurses have leadership content in their programs (see Table 1 for AACN essentials links). The systems where nurses work can stifle advancing leadership. General systems theory has been a cornerstone of system/organizational research for decades and supports organizational efforts to maintain and limit change (Peery, 1972). More contemporary thinking, however, suggests that workplace systems can be adaptive and allow for interaction among organizational components that may start at the ground level (Schneider & Somers, 2006). The view of leadership science in adaptive systems can then be shifted to the organization, its structure, members, and relationships to the community. Adaptive organizations are influenced by leaders within the system at any level or by events, external to the system. Innovation may start in the school nurse’s office. What are the research questions that will advance leadership science in school nursing? Of course, analysis of leadership characteristics will continue, but what about examination of the systems where school nursing services are delivered? How does complexity of the school system influence school nursing implementation of mandated programs? What is the effect of student to school nurse ratio on mandated programs? Who makes staffing decisions? How would staffing research influence staffing structures? What about outcome studies examining the relationship between nursing education and student health outcomes? What about studies that test the effects of professional support of school nurses on the programs that they create and manage? While such questions are broader than the identification of leadership characteristics, the answers to them could illuminate the important question . What school health organizational model provides for the healthiest school population? Understanding leadership in school nursing requires a research approach that posits practitioners in the systems where they work. Understanding will come from dissecting the influences that motivate nurses to be leaders.