516 ■ III: ROLE FUNCTIONS OF DOCTORAL ADVANCED NURSING PRACTICE
academic leader. She is now able to do the same with nursing faculty, students,
and other colleagues. She helps individuals identify their strengths and inspires
them to reach new heights in their nursing careers. She is receptive to new
and innovative ideas whether it be curriculum development, increased use of
simulation, adding new technology, supporting student remediation, service-
learning projects, study abroad programs and mission trips.CHALLENGES
Of course, clinical practice, nursing education, and administration are filled
with challenges but as Dr. Beauvais has discovered practicing critical self-
reflection has assisted her in capitalizing on her strengths and develop areas of
perceived weakness so she can effectively lead. Her knowledge and expertise
in emotional intelligence, which is the ability to recognize one’s own and other
people’s emotions makes her an effective leader and able to handle frustra-
tions that occur. At times, she feels the change process can be slow and learning
to find effective ways of communicating to keep all stakeholders informed is
essential. She identifies the challenges as the following: resources, nursing cur-
riculum, and faculty.RESOURCES
As in other business models, academic institutions also have limited resources
and leaders must develop innovative models to create new revenue sources.
This can be supported by fostering linkages among the university, other educa-
tional institutions, and clinical practice settings. Student clinical placements are
limited, which makes the process of finding adequate training sites an incred-
ible task. The ability to attract and retain qualified nursing faculty with lower
salary bases than the service industry also contributes to the faculty shortage.NURSING CURRICULUM
Providing a nursing curriculum to prepare future nurses for the complexity of
today’s health care environment is of paramount importance. Nursing curric-
ulum has to keep pace with practice innovation and integration of change and
be as nimble as their practice partners in this area. Creating a curriculum to
bridge the gap between clinical practice and education is needed to improve
the quality and safety of care. Another challenge is to increase funding to pre-
pare a culturally diverse workforce and prepare the next generation of nursing
faculty.■ CASE STUDY: DNP Graduate as an Associate
Dean of Nursing (continued)(continued)