NUR 457: Nursing Leadership

Drawing upon the concepts of both Navajo philosophy and the medicine wheel, the authors offer a group counseling model by which to help restore direction, hope, and self worth to adolescents.

An inordinate number of American Indian nursing students fail to graduate. This article explores ways to facilitate student success through the use of a Dream Catcher-Medicine Wheel, and reports findings from a descriptive study of hope in American Indian and non-American Indian students who were nursing majors at an upper Midwestern university. The Herth hope scale revealed high levels of hope in both groups; however, among the American Indian students there was a trend toward lower scores on items describing negative reactions to presumed setbacks and fears. Findings are discussed in light of the Dream Catcher-Medicine Wheel conceptual model.

Research indicates that numerous variables have an impact on a leader's effectiveness. This study explores the behaviors associated with leadership effectiveness in driving change. The findings confirm previous research that identifies change effectiveness skills, while isolating the specific leader behaviors deemed most valuable to implementing change: motivation and communication.