Pressure to assume increasing risks, both individually and organizationally, has become a bellwether for nursing's practitioners, managers, and educators. Inherent in the role of today's nurse is the ability to make decisions, often with risk, at both an individual and a collective level. Yet, until recently, nursing's ability to practice independent decision making for both their clients and policies governing their practice were neither supported nor endorsed. The literature indicates a significant number of nurses value risk taking and are willing to make informed decisions regarding the probability of rewards and the consequences associated with failure. How and when these risks are assumed is dependent upon a variety of influences.