title: Discovering the leader within yourself: school nurses as leaders.
abstract: School nurses are leaders every day, sometimes with ambivalence and sometimes fully embracing the leadership role. The authors were participants and trainers in the successful School Nurse Leadership Program of the Healthy Schools Campaign. The article describes five principles of effective school nurse leadership to help school nurses discover the leaders within themselves: passion, knowledge, advocacy, relationships, and communication. School nurses are encouraged to set leadership goals. Participants in a session at the NASN 2011 annual conference described a variety of 6-month goals including "Invite myself to the administrative meetings at least one time per quarter; present on a topic for at least 5 minutes. "Setting simple yet attainable goals is the first step to recognizing leadership in oneself.
authors.affiliation: School Nurse Certification Program, National Louis University, Western Springs, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Linda J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Gibbons
authors.forename: Mary Anne
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Wesoloski
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lawinger
authors.forename: Donna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fishman
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003254:Consumer Advocacy; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D012573:School Nursing / Q000379:methods*