Achieving Healthequity: A Role For Nurse Leaders On Nonprofit Boards

Abstract

Diverse board leadership plays a key role in effective local and community nonprofit organizations. Nurses with core governance competencies are uniquely positioned to serve on boards of the nonprofit organizations in the communities that they already live and work in, especially but not exclusively when those organizations focus on improving health care outcomes and advancing health promotion. While the nurse of the future (IOM, 2010) is called on to lead, nurses often do not perceive themselves as being successful in governance roles (Sundean et al., 2019). This paper describes a pilot project with the Connecticut Nurses Association (SpringBoard to Board Service) that supplemented an asynchronous online governance competencies curriculum (Best on Board) with in-person experiential learning vignettes; the pilot included an intensive, customize board match process which relied on extensive knowledge of and partnership with local and regional philanthropies and their nonprofit organization collaborators. Participant experience and readiness for board service during and after pilot was measured using the Sundean Healthcare Index for Preparedness in Board Competency (SHIP-BC); relationships among nurse leaders and community organizations facilitated successful board match. Keywords: Nurses on boards, governance, nursing education, board matc