Care executives: organizational intelligence for these times.

It is the age for holistic organizational intelligence in health care leadership. The key to adopt this model is to move away from rigid industrial thinking toward focused inspiration and transformation. This role is one that requires multiple competencies to orchestrate our complex, living, interdependent systems. This perspective comes from a nurse leader who is the designated President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a fully integrated health system--a system in which four hospitals merged into one 21st century progressive health structure and system.

Nursing leaders predict top trends for 2000.

Nursing Management's Editorial Advisory Board predicts the top 10 trends that will impact nurse leaders in 2000. Use them to lead in the new millennium.

Become architects of your future.

Here, learn to be stewards of a vision and design the health care infrastructure so it works for you.

Examining the dollars and cents of care.

Frontline nurses and nurse managers must understand the economic realities of their product--care--to manage costs and boost net revenues.

Management restructuring: the process of change.

This article provides simple, direct "how to" process steps for nursing leaders and managers who sense the need to move toward a flattened, decentralized model as a nursing organizational structure, but are not certain how to get there. The process of organizational restructuring is fraught with difficulty, but for health care to be responsive to patients and staff, nurse leaders must take on the challenge. Principles and process steps that lead to a restructuring plan are outlined, as well as pitfalls to avoid.

Integrating care delivery.

Mergers and acquisitions, multibillion dollar profit margins, and hospital chains that boast more than 400 sites all reflect the fact that health care is no longer a cottage industry but a corporate giant. The forms and structures that will provide care will continue to disintegrate and then evolve as we face a crisis in Medicare funding and as the ranks of uninsured continue to grow. The challenge for nursing leaders to stay centered on the core product and the core process of our industry--caring for patients. Integration is the key strategy that must be applied to achieve that end. We must strive for integration in three levels: within ourselves, between persons, and within our organization. Only then will nursing leadership be able to bring wholeness and influence to the corporate health care world through our individual roles and collectively through our profession.

A mentoring relationship: two viewpoints.

A mentoring relationship can be a dynamic process for both participants, one filled with increased self-awareness, commitment, and mutual respect. The time spent with a mentor guides the transition of theory into practice while clearly expressing the humanistic and caring qualities of the nurse administrator.