From left to right: Jackie Somerville, PhD, RN, FAAN, Estrellita Karsh and Jeffrey M. Adams, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN

A preview of Nurse Recognition week took place in Bornstein Amphitheater on April 28 with the annual Estrellita and Yousuf Karsh Visiting Scholar Lecture.

Jackie Somerville, PhD, RN, FAAN, chief nursing officer and senior vice president for Patient Care Services introduced Jeffrey M. Adams, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, executive director of the Workforce Outcomes Research and Leadership Development (WORLD) Institute and professor of practice in the College of Nursing and Health Innovation at Arizona State University (ASU).  In the audience was Estrellita Karsh, whose generosity makes this annual event possible.

The title of Adams’ lecture, “From Bedside to Boardroom: Leadership = L…o…v…,” was a clever play on a personal reflection: that he’s never felt quite comfortable saying the word “love.” Yet, as he explained, when “leadership equals love,” better work environments and improved outcomes are achieved. This belief is underpinned by the Adams Influence Model (AIM), a theoretical framework he developed, which contends that (1) nurse leaders influence the professional practice environment; (2) a positive environment influences patient and organizational outcomes; and (3) these outcomes, in turn, influence nurse leaders.

As co-founder and executive director of the WORLD Institute, an innovative academic and practice collaborative between the ASU College of Nursing and Health Innovation, BWH and Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Adams’ goal is to identify, quantify, and develop exemplary leadership in education and care delivery.

In addition to speaking about his work and research, Adams movingly described his own recent experience as a patient at BWH. He noted that the care he received from BWH nurses during two recent hospitalizations was transformative. He spoke of how his nurses not only provided complex clinical care, but “wanted to know who I was.”  From that experience, he came to a realization: “Despite research statistics that tell me there are 19 million nurses worldwide, it comes down to the fact that every single nurse matters.”