The program seeks applications from outstanding nurses in executive roles from health services (including patient care service, integrated delivery systems, health plans, and other health organizations engaged in organizing and delivering health care), public/community health, and nursing education who, along with their employing institutions, are willing to make a three-year commitment to the program. The fellowships are intended to offer participating nurses the experiences, insights, competencies and skills necessary to achieve, or advance in executive leadership positions in a health care system undergoing unprecedented change.

The program has identified five key competencies that are essential for successful leadership in the emerging health care system. These competencies form the pillars of the curriculum that engages the fellows throughout the program, and all the program activities are designed to enhance them:

• Interpersonal and communication effectiveness – The ability to translate a strategic vision into compelling and motivating messages.
• Risk-taking and creativity – The ability to transform both self and organization by moving beyond traditional patterned ways of success.
• Self-knowledge – The ability to understand and develop the self in the context of organizational challenges, interpersonal demands and individual motivation.
• Inspiring and leading change – The ability to inspire, structure, lead and effectively implement organizational change in an inclusive way.
• Strategic vision – The ability to connect broad social, economic and political changes to the strategic direction of institutions and organizations. 

The RWJF Executive Nurse Fellows Program is a national program supported by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation with direction and technical assistance provided by the Center for the Health Professions, University of California, San Francisco.