Celebrating Dr Kristine Qureshi and the impact of Leadership for Change
The International Council of Nurses (ICN) celebrates the work of Dr Kristine Qureshi, who has recently retired from her role as Lead Trainer for the ICN Leadership for Change (LFC) programme, where she contributed years of dedicated service and made a significant impact on nursing leadership worldwide. During her tenure, Dr Qureshi led initiatives to train more than 1,500 nurses in countries across regions including Europe, Asia, South and Central America, and the Eastern Mediterranean, expanding and strengthening the LFC programme as a cornerstone of global nursing leadership development.
ICN President, Dr José Luis Cobos Serrano, commented:
“Leadership for Change is an extraordinarily impactful initiative that has empowered nurses in over 70 countries with leadership skills they can use to implement organizational change, improve nursing practice, and achieve better health outcomes for all, in close collaboration with National Nursing Associations. The success of LFC contributed to the foundation of ICN’s new Leadership Centre, which brings together all of our high-quality leadership training programmes and is the next step in our mission to transform nurses into agents for positive change.
‘Dr Qureshi’s role has been central to LFC’s impact and ICN is enormously grateful for her vision and dedication, which has helped to build the skills and confidence of so many nursing leaders worldwide. Dr Qureshi has left a lasting legacy in each setting where LFC has been delivered and her contributions have informed important global policy documents such as the WHO State of the World’s Nursing (SOWN) reports and Strategic Directions on Nursing and Midwifery (SDNM), which highlight leadership development as a priority for the profession.”
As part of their training, Leadership for Change cohorts work in teams to develop and implement projects which address pressing health care needs and make an immediate impact on their organizations and communities. Recent projects have included successful initiatives to decrease workplace injuries among nurses, improve core competencies across clinical nursing specialties, and develop innovative electronic communication systems for effective information sharing and clinical outcomes.
At ICN’s recent Congress in Helsinki, Finland, global nurse leaders extended their gratitude to Dr Qureshi. Participants from Kenya, China, India, Norway, Taiwan, Cambodia, Myanmar and other countries expressed their appreciation for the programme and Dr Qureshi’s leadership, describing her “unwavering commitment to advancing nursing leadership” and “ability to make even the most challenging projects feel purposeful”. One participant noted that “she held our hands to be transformative leaders”, while others praised the programme’s “adaptability and attentiveness to the needs of each country, while keeping everyone focused on a shared goal of creating meaningful and sustainable change.”
Addressing the participants, Dr. Qureshi reflected on her experience and reiterated the importance of sustainable leadership development, saying:
“It has been the pleasure of my career to have worked with each of you in the ICN as well as everybody across the Leadership for Change programme. Change doesn't happen overnight. It's like planting a seed. The Leadership for Change programme is about nurturing those seeds with time, care, and persistence. You won't see a tree in two weeks, but if you keep watering and tending to it, growth will come, and when it does, it can transform everything around it.”
As part of ICN’s Leadership Centre, the Leadership for Change programme continues to expand, building nursing leadership capacity around the globe.