What is the future for nurse executives?

This article describes the future role of nurse executives as designers of health care rather than respondents to internal and external environmental forces. The successful executives will be proactive, dedicated, and politically astute. These individuals will engineer vertical organizations that are empowered, fluid, and flexible. These new organizational skills will be developed through innovative executive educational programs designed at the master's and doctoral levels. Well-established executives from business, education, public health, medicine, administration, health systems, and education will become the faculty preparing these individuals. These programs will integrate other health care disciplines through an integrated and flexible approach to learning. The development of these roles will influence policy and decision making at all levels within health care.