Rounds with Leadership: A Time to Revel, Reflect, and Renew

As we approach the close of 2024, it’s important to take time to celebrate our successes and reflect on all that we learned this year. In academic nursing, we have much to celebrate.

Collectively, we made great strides in setting a new standard for excellence in nursing education, fueled by creativity, innovation, and courage. Faculty from coast to coast worked to adapt their programs to meet today’s competency standards for professional nursing programs. We saw the drive to achieve health equity accelerate along with efforts to advance inclusive excellence. In the policy arena, nurses used their voices to advocate for sound public policy and call for sustained funding for pathways into the nursing profession. In ever increasing numbers, nurse educators engaged more closely with practice partners to expand enrollment and meet workforce needs. This work is having an impact, and you should be proud of what you have accomplished at your home institutions and as part of a community of leaders committed to preparing future generations of nurses to thrive.

To help remember some of our high points this year, we encourage you take a few minutes to watch AACN’s 2024 Year in Review video:

On behalf of the AACN Board of Directors and staff, we wish you all the joy, peace, and happiness of the holiday season. We look forward to seeing you in 2025 - refreshed and excited about the possibilities that come with the arrival of the new year.