Associate Professor Cormac O’Sullivan, PhD, CRNA, ARNP, was recently accepted into the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s (AACN) Leadership for Academic Nursing Program (LANP). According to the association, the program was created to enhance the executive leadership skills of individuals in mid- to upper-level faculty positions who have experience in academic administration roles and who aspire to lead the nursing academic unit.

“I applied for the AACN Leadership for Academic Nursing Program because I want to someday hold a leadership position in health care that can make a difference,” explained Dr. O’Sullivan. “I know many of our current leaders have been at it a long time and are getting to the point where they would like to step down. If I decide to further my nursing leadership role, I’ll need some guidance, and I believe this program will provide me some of the tools needed to advance to that next level of leadership.”

Dr. O’Sullivan has been a clinician for 30 years, an educator for nearly 20 years, and director of the college’s highly ranked Anesthesia Nursing program for the last eight years.

“The United States spends 18 percent of its annual gross domestic product on health care, which is more than any other country in the world, yet our health care outcomes don’t even rank in the top 25 globally,” he added. “If we keep putting practitioners into the same system, educating and paying them the same way, we are not going to make the changes we need in order to solve the issues facing our health care system. I want to help solve some of those problems and I believe leading a change in health care and nursing education will help create those changes.”

Fortunately for Dr. O’Sullivan, AACN’s leadership program is intended to do just that—prepare a diverse pool of mid-career nursing faculty by focusing on key leadership competencies needed in complex nursing education and health care environments. The program also offers assessment and evaluation of leadership skills; opportunities for strategic networking and case study development; consultation to achieve long-term goals, and identification of key partnerships.

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The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) is the national voice for baccalaureate and graduate nursing education. AACN works to establish quality standards for nursing education; assists schools in implementing those standards; influences the nursing profession to improve health care; and promotes public support for professional nursing education, research, and practice. Learn more at https://www.aacnnursing.org/.