Succession planning: when an academic merger occurs.

Abstract

Optimal positioning of nursing in an interdisciplinary college calls for an expanded concept of succession planning that includes broad-gauged organizational and staff development strategies. The process requires time, openness to incremental change, effective leadership within the academic unit, and a well-thought-through faculty committee structure and budgetary authority. At the University of Southern Maine College of Nursing and Health Professions, succession planning has led to structural and budgetary changes and has required a flexible process, responsive to larger university priorities and fiscal challenges, that is shaped by a vision for the future of the college and of nursing.