Nursing Education and Nursing Service Partnership: Teaching Leadership Online

In collaboration with practicing nurse leaders, a nursing leadership course was delivered online to a diverse community of learners. The University of South Dakota serves a state population where half of the counties qualify as frontier, and 11 Indian reservations are located within its borders. Today’s professional nurse must have skills to provide leadership and management to deliver effective health care to the community. This article highlights the partnership with rural and urban nurse leaders to jointly teach an online leadership course in an associate of science nursing degree program. This partnership, in concert with an interactive online course, creates a community of learners who benefit from a group of practicing nurse leaders. Identification and steps to recruit nurse leaders are outlined. A description of the course content and overall design is provided. To engage class participants, a variety of interactive teaching strategies are detailed. Testimonials of nurse leaders are presented.