title: Leaders need followers to sustain change.
abstract: I feel inspired. I've been celebrating the culmination of the programme to develop the leadership capabilities of nurses working with older people funded by the Department of Health (England) and run by the Royal College of Nursing. The third such DH-funded programme, this comprised 23 facilitated days, action learning, mentorship, shadowing and patient-centred, work-based learning. Eighty nurses from the NHS, the independent sector, social care and a range of other services completed the course.