Educational innovation: nursing's leadership challenge

Hospitals are increasingly looking for the best graduates, but as this competitive environment increases, little focus is on collaboration and innovation in changing the education system so there will be more "best nurses." In universities today we find numerous barriers to investment in innovation and risk, which hampers the ability to address national workforce needs and compete in a global marketplace. Academic institutions need to become more creative, and begin to look at nursing as a partnership between those who essentially purchase our product and those who develop the product. Nursing leadership needs to collaborate quickly with integration and innovation in developing, improving, and maintaining the skill set of the nursing workforce and assuring competent practitioners from our educational system going forward. We need to share our valuable resources and move out of our silos and begin to look at the big picture, and we need to reach inside and find that creative child that works within us.