Nursing Leadership Paper

The textbook, Concepts for Nursing Practice, defines leadership as, “an interactive process that provides needed guidance and direction.” (Giddens, J., 2013, p.375). Leaders can be informal, a coworker that everyone looks up to, or formal, a manager that has authority that has been given to them (Giddens, J., 2013, p.375). In the case of the nurse manager I have been shadowing, she is a formal leader. The hospital has appointed her as the Surgical Services Nurse Manager to lead the Surgical Services departments and act as their spokesperson when addressing upper management. Her position within the heath care team is as a liaison between upper management and lower tier health care leaders. The Surgical Services

One of the challenges facing nurses today is learning how to be an effective leader. Assessing and analyzing the style of leadership the nurse possesses is the first step in facing the challenge. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and understand the characteristics of my style of leadership from an assessment performed by Gallup Strength Finders and DiSC and compare the strengths I have in common with Eleanor Roosevelt.

3). In this relationship, each must work through phases including conflict resolution and negotiation as part of the process. Transformational theory further explains leadership must include exhibiting a degree of emotional intelligence. This occurs when perceiving how others feel, understanding how the feelings lead to thinking, understanding the emotions, and managing emotions internally. In respects to this theory, emotional intelligence enhances this bi-directional relationship between the leader and the followers (Spears, 2002).

I have scheduled an interview and time to observe a nurse leader with the Director of Nursing (DON) for the Virginian Nursing and Rehab facility in Fairfax, Virginia for Thursday October 2, 2014 at 7:30am. I plan on spending a full eight-hour shift with the nurse leader observing the following three leadership activities: 1) Observing her making rounds on the units 2) Observing and or participating in a nursing leadership meeting and 3) Observing the facility’s interdisciplinary team meeting.

Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.

Not all nurses go into the profession with leadership ideas. The nursing profession must produce leaders throughout the health care system. Leaders must function as workers, and administrators with leadership qualities, while still meeting their budgets and running effective units with high functioning and happy staff members. They need to trouble shoot necessary and work with the medical faculty while pleasing their staff and the administers.

In the increasingly complex, ever changing environment of today’s healthcare, effective leaders are essential to help drive positive change resulting in increased access to care with positive outcomes for as many as possible. In its 2010 report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recognized that nurses are well positioned to play a key role in the transformation of our healthcare system in the United States (U.S.) (Institute of Medicine [IOM], 2010). In The Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) specifically identifies organizational and systems leadership as a core competency for advanced

One of the highest and most important management positions in a healthcare organization is the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO). They are responsible for many different tasks that keep the organization afloat and running. One of their responsibilities is to coordinate and oversee the nursing department and all of its daily operations. In order to do this, they are in charge of ensuring that the daily operations run in the organization comply with all regulations and standards. CNOs also develop and implement new objectives, policies and procedures. Other responsibilities include providing guidance to nursing staff, acting as a resource to fellow colleagues, recruiting, hiring, retention of staff, handling disciplinary actions, preparing/overseeing

The nurse manager I selected to interview is a Baccalaureate degree nurse and has attended several in-house training sessions related to her position within the hospital. She attended Lenoir Rhyne University to obtain her BSN and has been employed with the institution for 13 years and has been in nursing for nearly 20 years. She is currently certified as a Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN) and is also a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner. The Hospital that she is employed with is a private hospital she manages a 15 bed emergency department and 6 bed express care facility, which also holds several involuntary commitments for several hours at a time waiting on placement.

What I will be writing about in this paper is going to deal with articles and websites having to do with the nursing field. I'll be mentioning some of the branches of nursing that are more important or are top needed. I'll be mentioning what are the requirements needed regarding nursing. Also, the benefits of being a nurse. The working conditions and locations. Lastly on how important nursing are.

Nurse leaders are faced with issues or problems on a daily basis that are often expected and sometimes unexpected. It “comes with the territory” so to speak. If there were no issues to solve or hurdles to overcome the necessity of designating a leader would not seem quite as important. Nurse leaders can tackle issues that occur in their work environment using nursing theory to guide them. Nursing theory provides a framework that nurse leaders can use to implement interventions or changes to positively impact the staff they lead. This framework of the theory will set the standards for achieving the desired outcomes and is based on knowledge that is gleaned from practice and/or research.

“Managers with leadership styles that seek and value contributions from staff, promote a climate in which information is shared effectively, promote decision making at the staff nurse level, exert position power, and influence coordination of work to provide a milieu that maintains a stable cadre of nurses”, (Boyle, Bott, Hansen, Woods & Taunton, 2009). This statement describes the large impact a leadership style can make on the work environment, and the morale of the team. In nursing history, several theories and leadership

Leadership may mean different things to different people, the consensus opinion of experts in this field is that leadership is using power to direct and influence activities of people to achieve set goals or targets. Nursing leadership is all about every nurse providing, facilitating and promoting the best healthcare services to client and to the public. Leadership is a shared responsibility. (CNO 2012). The nursing profession need leaders that can build the capacity of nurses through mentoring, coaching, supporting, developing the expertise and management skills of nurses to make a difference to the quality of patient care at all levels of the profession ( McIntyre & McDonald, 2014 ). At the core of every leadership either political or managerial is power and how the leader uses it. While it is practically impossible to lead without power, how the nurse leader uses this power not only determine the leadership style but also the results or outcomes of what is achieved through the process.

Leadership does not always come with a title or prestige. Every nurse has within themselves qualities that make them a great leader. Leadership by definition, “is a combination of intrinsic personality traits, learned leadership skills, and characteristics of the situation (Cherry& Jacob (2013 p. 335). A leader is one who has the capacity and skills to direct or encourage others in efforts to achieve an outcome. I recently completed a self-assessment on my perceived leadership abilities. The survey was called the Nurse Manager Skills Inventory (Nurse Manager Leadership Partnership, 2008). It consists of four content areas of which I will address and identify my strengths and weaknesses.

Those who want to become a nurse executive will need to earn both a bachelor’s and master’s degree related to nursing administration, health care management and medical business administration. They will also need to have a set of core competencies and health care business acumen.