title: Serving on a hospital board: A case study.
abstract: It is important for nurses to serve on hospital boards, largely to give voice to matters of quality and patient safety.
  
  
  
  Describe what one nurse was able to accomplish on a statewide board over time as chair of the board's Quality and Patient Safety Committee.
  
  
  
  The experience was analyzed using auto-ethnography and narrative analysis.
  
  
  
  After describing the organization, the paper summarizes the key issues on which the nurse took the lead, measures of success in the role, and learning acquired along the way.
  
  
  
  The "system" orientation of nurses is an asset in getting hospital boards to view themselves as institutional champions of quality.
authors.affiliation: Indiana University School of Nursing, Indianapolis, IN. Electronic address: amcbride@iu.edu.
authors.forename: Angela Barron
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: McBride
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006075:Governing Board / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006739:Hospital Administration; D006801:Humans; D007196:Indiana; D007857:Leadership; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D024802:Nurse's Role; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D061214:Patient Safety; D011787:Quality of Health Care
keywords: Auto-ethnography; Board diversity; Hospital boards; Hospital systems; Indiana University Health; Narrative analysis; Nursing; Quality and patient safety