Leadership challenges for nurse practitioner faculty.

Nursing leadership is essential to manage change; enhance linkages with other health professionals, the public, and the political system; and conduct research regarding clinical practice and system effectiveness and efficiency. The change that is needed and under way in the United States is tri-dimensional (health care reform, workforce reform, and curriculum reform). All three actions must occur in order to create an affordable, accessible, and user-friendly system. During this change, the challenges that are most salient for nurse practitioner faculty are to: differentiate roles among physicians, nurse practitioners, and other nurses; decrease costs while maintaining quality of care; create a supportive environment for advanced practice nurses, with consideration given to barriers to practice, and collaborative and independent practice; and maintain integrity in the education of both acute care and primary care nurse practitioners. It is imperative that the nursing profession maintain unity throughout these changes and promote initiatives that will ensure accessibility, quality, and affordability of health care, as well as enhance the relevance of education and practice.