North Carolina Center for Nursing health policy fellowship: a strategy for developing nursing leaders for the future

In the midst of ongoing concern about succession planning to develop the next generation of nursing leaders, the profession cannot afford to overlook succession planning in regard to the next generation of nurse leaders in health policy. This article describes a project of the North Carolina Center for Nursing that provides a fellowship in state-level health policy for North Carolina nurses who have completed a graduate level health policy course. Policy fellows are exposed to health policy analysis through the public policy arena, regulatory and administrative arenas, and organizational and institutional arenas. As part of this journey, all major state stakeholders in health policy are involved in the mentoring process. The North Carolina Center for Nursing Health Policy Fellowship is described here as a potential model related to policy initiatives in other states.