For the past four years I have been teaching the “Leadership and Influencing Change” course as an online distance learning course for nurses. When the opportunity presented itself to create an open textbook for the course, it seemed like a natural fit to use the materials that I had developed and refined for the online course. Those materials make up the basis of this textbook.
I would like to thank Dr. david Gregory, Dean of Nursing at the University of Regina, for providing support and encouraging me to undertake this project. Without his willingness to pilot this new area of open educational resource development in the School of Nursing, the creation of this textbook would not have been possible. The process of creating a textbook is no small task; indeed, it takes a community of experts to bring it all together, from nurse leaders who are subject matter experts to editors, designers, and support staff who lead the publication process. I would like to thank all the experts in nursing who have contributed their expertise and time to write chapters for the textbook. They are the heart of this project, and their contributions are a testament to the fact that health care in Saskatchewan is supported by a strong community of nurses and health care experts working together to provide the best in health care for Saskatchewan residents. I encourage students using this textbook to read the biographies of the contributors. They come from diverse academic institutions and nursing organizations in our province and across Canada and bring a wealth of knowledge and perspectives on nurse leadership from different disciplines.
I would also like to thank those nursing experts who generously contributed their time to provide detailed reviews and recommendations for improvement. In particular, I would like to thank Jayne Naylen Horbach. Through her keen eye and passion for nursing and leadership, she has provided a valuable review of the text and has helped to strengthen its content. I would also like to thank Wendy Whitebear, whom I met through our common interest in the Saskatchewan Centre for Patient-Oriented Research. Wendy wrote the foreword to the textbook and brought valuable insight into health care as it relates to Indigenous people.
The staff at URP provided a sure hand in guiding me through the publishing process and providing support throughout the development of the textbook.
Finally, I would like to thank my husband for his support and willingness to listen as I shared my excitement over each chapter as it was “birthed.”
Joan Wagner
