Pearls of wisdom for chief academic nursing leaders.

There is a significant shortage of executive leadership in nursing academia with large numbers of deans have retired and many more are expected in the upcoming years (AACN, 2015). This has resulted in a steady upward trend of nursing schools reporting a change in deans over the past 5 years; many of the changes in academic nursing leadership involve deans who are new to the role. The role expectations of chief academic nursing leaders are very complex and for which few new leaders are completely prepared. This article describes the role and competencies of the chief academic nursing leader and presents "pearls" for success for new leaders assuming this role.