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Background: Leadership development, career advancement, and collaboration among scholars are essential to nurturing nursing research excellence and sustainability. The Midwest Nursing Research Society (MNRS) has incorporated several strategies to advance nursing science and to increase the pool of future nurse leaders. In this article, we describe the process, activities, and outcomes of the Leadership Academy (LA), an innovative initiative from MNRS developed to identify, engage, and nurture future generations of leaders., Methods: For the LA 2022 to 2023 period, the MNRS leaders selected a cohort of 5 nurse scholars and engaged them in activities to develop, enhance, and advance their leadership skills. By following the LA purposes, the cohort participated in monthly meetings with MNRS leaders, received individual mentoring sessions, assessed strengths and areas for further development, attended seminars, participated in a book club, and implemented a cohort project that focused on the promotion and support of early career scholars., Results: Outcomes showed increased knowledge about organizational governance, direction, and resource development; leadership confidence culminating with leadership positions inside and outside MNRS; career development plans; engagement with board members, and enhanced networking. Moreover, the cohort members planned and executed a well-attended conference special session that engaged a large group of scholars to discuss challenges and opportunities for career development at the MNRS Annual Conference., Conclusion: The MNRS LA is a thriving organizational initiative that promotes engagement and leadership skills development thereby increasing the pool of candidates confidently prepared to lead the nursing profession., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Researchers function in a complex environment and carry multiple role responsibilities. This environment is prone to various distractions that can derail productivity and decrease efficiency. Effective time management allows researchers to maintain focus on their work, contributing to research productivity. Thus, improving time management skills is essential to developing and sustaining a successful program of research. This article presents time management strategies addressing behaviors surrounding time assessment, planning, and monitoring. Herein, the Western Journal of Nursing Research editorial board recommends strategies to enhance time management, including setting realistic goals, prioritizing, and optimizing planning. Involving a team, problem-solving barriers, and early management of potential distractions can facilitate maintaining focus on a research program. Continually evaluating the effectiveness of time management strategies allows researchers to identify areas of improvement and recognize progress.

Formidable health problems are often best addressed by teams of scientists with varied expertise. This diversity among team members and complexities in managing teams can lead to challenges in designing, funding, conducting, and reporting research. Team science difficulties can be addressed by sophisticated planning, frequent reassessment and realignment of team strategies with goals, and consistent transparent communication. This article addresses specific strategies to build and sustain research teams, manage team meetings, strategically develop publications and grants, thrive in the midst of disciplinary and individual team member differences, embrace new ideas and change to maintain creativity, and build future team scientists and projects. The potential value in team science justifies the effort required to build and maintain efficient and effective research teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Junior faculty follow a research path replete with challenges as they strive to create knowledge in their area of interest while balancing new responsibilities. Unlike graduate school, where students focus inward on personal development, junior faculty must add responsibilities in ways that hold them accountable as members of a university. This special article deals with three themes of interest to new junior faulty launching research programs: personal development, collaboration and team development within university settings, and funding advice. Strategies in these areas provide guidance on navigating early careers and finding success in the academic setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Getting turned down for grant funding or having a manuscript rejected is an uncomfortable but not unusual occurrence during the course of a nurse researcher’s professional life. Rejection can evoke an emotional response akin to the grieving process that can slow or even undermine productivity. Only by “normalizing” rejection, that is, by accepting it as an integral part of the scientific process, can researchers more quickly overcome negative emotions and instead use rejection to refine and advance their scientific programs. This article provides practical advice for coming to emotional terms with rejection and delineates methods for working constructively to address reviewer comments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]