Promoting Sustainable Nursing Leadership: The Nightingale Legacy

The year 2020 features the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth. Her legacy is often recalled as simply being "the lady with the lamp" who cared for sick and wounded British soldiers; however, her impact on the nursing profession includes serving as a role model for many leadership behaviors and strategies that have positively impacted the health of communities and populations around the world. Through her tireless endeavors, Nightingale exemplified many leadership roles, including advocate, change agent, interprofessional collaborator, and visionary. The development of effective skills in these leadership roles remains important for all levels of nursing leaders in today's health-care environment. This article showcases Nightingale's leadership in selected leadership roles, and demonstrates her continued impact on contemporary nurses.