Wharton Nursing Leaders Program

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Dates Location Tuition
Oct 11, 2010 - Oct 15, 2010 Philadelphia $4,000

Tuition includes lodging, breakfasts, snacks, and lunches. Hotel rooms are blocked for all participants at the Inn at Penn. For more information, please contact a Program Consultant at +1.215.898.1776 or by e-mail at execed@wharton.upenn.edu. Prices are subject to change.

The primary focus of this program is to assist nursing leaders in the effective management and implementation of strategic and tactical plans. As nursing leaders move upward in the organization, the decisions, the issues, and the projects become increasingly complex and multifunctional. The program content is specifically designed to address this complexity and includes identifying the key stakeholders and influencing their behavior, learning to manage resources, and knowing when to terminate a task force or project. Small group work is used to enhance the opportunities for learning and applying the lessons from the classroom. Faculty members participating in the Wharton Nursing Leaders Program have been chosen not only for their expertise in a particular content area but also their vast experience working with senior clinician executives.


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Wharton Nursing Leaders Program Session Topics

  • Task Force Management
  • Accounting
  • Stakeholder Mapping
  • Effective Decision Making
  • Team Building and Motivation

This program is for higher-level nurse managers who are preparing for the role of CNO. Specifically, an individual attending this program must meet two of the three following criteria:

  • Reports directly to the chief nursing officer of the organization.
  • Has multi-unit fiscal and management responsibilities.
  • Manages direct reports who have supervisory responsibility.

The objectives of the program include:

  • To provide essential financial skills, enabling participants to communicate budgetary information to peers and staff.
  • To provide an awareness of the strategic issues facing the health care organization and the stakeholders within and outside the organization.
  • To provide critical analytical skills necessary to manage task forces or project teams.
  • To enhance the ability to manage resources, both human and financial, and to optimize clinical and administrative performance.
  • To explore the causes of poor decision making.

undefined KATHY PEARSON, PhD
Academic Director
Adjunct Associate Professor,
Operations and Information Management Department
The Wharton School

Kathy Pearson, PhD, serves as an adjunct associate professor in the Operations and Information Management Department at the Wharton School. She has taught operations management courses in the MBA program and Executive Master’s of Technology Management program as well as probability and statistics, simulation modeling, and other courses for the department and the University of Pennsylvania. In addition, Dr. Pearson is a senior consultant and director, Executive Education, for Decision Strategies International (DSI), a management consulting firm focused on scenario-based strategic planning and decision making. She specializes in subject areas such as critical thinking, scenario planning, strategic decision making, project management, and stakeholder analysis. Dr. Pearson has also worked with executives from a wide variety of industries and has taught at CEDEP at INSEAD in Fountainebleau, France.
Charles E. Dwyer, PhD CHARLES E. DWYER, PhD
Associate Professor, Educational Leadership Division
Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania

Charles Dwyer has held the positions of chairperson of the board of the Wharton Center for Applied Research and director of the Management and Behavioral Science Center. He has more than 30 years of experience in corporate and organizational consulting and executive development for various clients, including IBM, the New York Stock Exchange, PepsiCo, the Buick Division of General Motors, Merrill Lynch, Intel, Bates Advertising, the Justice Department, the General Services Administration, and the Federal Reserve System. Professor Dwyer is recognized as an outstanding teacher and lecturer. His recent books are Managing People (Kendall/Hunt, 1996), The Shifting Sources of Power and Influence (American College of Physician Executives, 1992), and Achieving Power and Influence in Organizations, the latter being a multimedia, self-instructional series of three seminars. He also teaches in Wharton’s Leading and Managing People and Building Relationships That Work programs.
Steven Finkler, Phd, CPA STEVEN A. FINKLER, PhD, CPA
Professor Emeritus of Public and Health Administration, Accounting, and Financial Management
Wagner School of Public Service, New York University

Steven Finkler is an award-winning teacher and author. Among his awards are the 2002 Pioneering Spirit Award from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) and the 2003 Sigma Theta Tau International Research Award in the Health Policy and Systems category. Dr. Finkler served as a member of the National Advisory Council of the National Institute for Nursing Research at NIH from 1997 to 2001.

Among his publications are 18 books and more than 200 journal articles. His books include Budgeting Concepts for Nurse Managers, 3rd edition; Financial Management for Nurse Managers and Executives, 2nd edition (with Chris Kovner); and Accounting Fundamentals for Health Care Management (with David Ward). He has published articles in Nursing Economics, the Journal of Nursing Administration, the Western Journal of Nursing Research, Nursing Administration Quarterly, the New England Journal of Medicine, and other leading journals.

He is currently working on the 3rd edition of Financial Management for Nurse Managers and Executives (with Chris Kovner and Cheryl Jones), and the 4th edition of Budgeting Concepts for Nurse Managers (with Mary McHugh).

He received a BS and MS from the Wharton School, where he majored in accounting and finance. His master's degree in economics and PhD in business administration were awarded by Stanford University. Dr. Finkler, who is also a CPA, worked for several years as an auditor with Ernst and Young and was on the Wharton faculty before joining New York University.
Chatham Sullivan, PhD CHATHAM SULLIVAN, PsyD
Senior Manager
Center for Applied Research (CFAR)

Chatham Sullivan, PsyD, is a senior manager at the Center for Applied Research (CFAR), a management consulting firm specializing in strategy and organizational development. Dr. Sullivan works with clients in health care, particularly hospital systems, and owner-led businesses, focusing on collaboration, leadership, and strategy. Dr. Sullivan draws on his training in organizational psychology and management to address with his clients the crucial intersection of business economics and organizational dynamics. In addition to his work at CFAR, he has staffed Executive Education programs at Aresty Institute of Executive Education and the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at Wharton. Dr. Sullivan presents and publishes on various topics in management, including authority relations, leadership, group dynamics, and the consultant/client relationship.