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Missouri Leadership Council for Nursing Students

History
Goal
Objectives
Activities
Outcomes Assessment

History

The Missouri League for Nursing was successful in 2000 in obtaining a grant from the Helene Fuld Trust in New York, NY. The MLN grant established a mentoring relationship between nursing students (LPN, ADN, and/or BSN programs) in their final year of school and experienced nurses at various levels in their career.

The Trust awarded grants to leading nursing schools and other organizations that undertake innovative programs designed to attract and expand the abilities and leadership skills of nursing students, faculty, and administration. In 2001, the MLN grant was extended for a second year, which allowed a new group of nursing students the opportunity to experience the benefits of having a mentor. For more information about the Helene Fuld Trust, visit their website at http://www.fuld.org/.

Goal

The MLN grant created the Missouri Leadership Council for Nursing Students which emphasizes the enhancement and development of leadership abilities to manage health care with excellence. The MLN's goal for this program is to cultivate nurses who will actively participate in professional organizations, serve in leadership positions both personally and professionally, be mentors to future nursing students, and develop critical-thinking/problem-solving skills.

Objectives

• Provide leadership training through educational opportunities to enhance the following skills: communication, decision-making, delegation, and supervision.
  
• Cultivate peer and professional mentors.
  
• Enhance the relationship between the new graduate and the professional mentor that promotes leadership skills as a long term quality for the new graduates.
  
• Encourage professional and personal growth in an environment of emerging technologies.
  
• Promote affiliation with professional organizations.

Activities

Project Assignments - The student/mentor dyads are given the challenge of creating a project that will improve their leadership abilities by enhancing the student's communication, decision-making, supervision, and delegation skills. Each dyad selects a project that they will undertake over a five-month period. They will focus on the leadership skills and knowledge the student can obtain throughout the process of completing the project. They are responsible for preparing a final report and presenting it at the MLN's annual convention in April.

List of projects:

• A Day in the Life of a Nurse Manager
  
• Advocating for the Cancer Patient
  
• Bridging the Communication Gap
  
• Community Based Back-to-Sleep Assessment and Education
  
• Create Cohesion/Caring Between Nursing Students & Admin.
  
• Determine Need for School Based Health Center/Clinic in Urban Middle Schools
  
• Develop and Implement Health Care Issue Legislative Advocacy Skills
  
• Development of a Long Term Care Nursing Support Group
  
• Domestic Abuse Prevention Advocacy
  
• Emerging Technologies for Professional and Personal Growth
  
• Enhancing High School Students Exposure to Nursing as a Career
  
• Fostering Positive Mentoring Relationships Between the Experienced Nurse and the Graduate Nurse in OB Nursing
  
• How Preceptors are Viewed by Themselves and Students
  
• How to Prepare the LPN/GPN for a Role as a Charge Nurse
  
• Improved Communication During Childbirth
  
• Increased Leadership Skills, Impact on the Health Care Environment
  
• Intercultural Awareness
  
• LPNs - What We Are, What We Do
  
• Mentoring in Critical Care
  
• Mentoring New Graduates on Professional Issues
  
• Mentoring Perspective Nurses
  
• Nursing Image in Grades 5 & 6
  
• Nursing Students Perception about the Political Process
  
• Nursing: Is It for You?
  
• Organizational Leadership in Nursing
  
• Positive Promotion of the Nursing Profession to School Age Children
  
• Preparing Sophomore Students for the Advocacy Day Experience
  
• Prevention of Dehydration of Nursing Home Residents at Green Meadows
  
• Professional Development
  
• Promote the Nursing Profession in Rural Missouri Schools
  
• Promote the Profession of Nursing to 6th Grade Students
  
• Promoting Affiliation with Professional Nursing Organizations
  
• Promoting Summer Preceptor Programs for Nursing Students
  
• Recognize Characteristics of Child Abuse
  
• Recruiting Tomorrow's Nursing Leaders
  
• Situational Leadership
  
• Situational Leadership (Nursing Recruitment & Retention)
  
• Student Nurse Expectations of their First Work Experience as a Graduate Nurse
  
• The 3 P's: Promoting a Positive Professional Nursing Image in Rural High Schools
  
• Therapeutic Communication Utilized By LPN/RN in Home Care Setting.
  
• What in the World Am I Looking for in My New Job?

Outcomes Assessment

Evaluation Tools - As part of the process of developing leadership skills, the students are asked to evaluate their progress on achieving the goals of their selected project and to report on their successes and failures. The students complete two quarterly reports and one final evaluation during the five-month program.

Final Report - Each dyad prepares a final report that is submitted to the MLN for inclusion in a report that summarizes all the projects developed.

Final Presentation - Each dyad will learn communication and presentation skills as part of their leadership development by preparing a presentation that is made to the group and their school's leadership. This presentation is made during a recognition dinner at the MLN Annual Convention.

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