Choose a clinical focus, develop a project within a practice setting that allows you to develop these leadership skills. Identify a problem area in a practice setting that you specifically want to address (e.g., practice, policy, population, education) that aligns with organizational priorities. Example sources for the problem area may include the following:
•  Practice: joint commission standards, core measures as quality indicators, other data
•  Policy: legislation, staffing ratio, regulations from state boards
•  Population: children with diabetes, adult obesity
•  Education: future of nursing, Benner’s recommendations about nursing education
Focus on a real-life solution for the problem. Choose a topic that is timely, manageable, and realistic to the current healthcare environment. An external
resource person (i.e., manager, clinical leader, clinical educator, policy expert, or population expert) must confirm the relevance of the selected project and your engagement in the setting as part of project completion. As with all projects, you should think how you, as a nurse, function in the following roles: detective, scientist, and manager of the healing environment.