The Navy And My Master 's Program At Old Dominion University

"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." Dwight D. Eisenhower This quote from Eisenhower rings true on many levels. During my career in the military and the private sector, I have been subjected to many different styles of leadership, good or bad. In my leadership roles I have attained, I tried to model leadership abilities by taking bits and pieces of previous leader’s styles and forming them into my own model. This has proven to work well as dealing with people from all different walks of life there is no one size fits all approach. In writing this paper, I will detail my own leadership platform drawing from the course material and various other sources. The goal of this paper is to show a solid understanding of the course teachings and perhaps give the reader a new found perspective on leadership.

The next question posed to Rene inquired about essential characteristics of a leader. After giving the question some thought she responded by saying that a leader must be able to remain objective and prioritize. “Prioritizing in my job is essential,” Rene stated, “with so many issues to deal with some nights it can be difficult to determine which to tackle first. However, remaining calm and objective in your decision making can help a leader prioritize properly, which can improve patient outcomes.” Additionally, Rene emphasized that the best leaders lead by example. By displaying desired attitudes and behaviors, a nursing leader may inspire their staff to act in a similar manner. Another area Rene stressed when posed this question was a leader’s ability to support learning. She went on to state that “it is necessary to focus on learning, not chastising. Placing the blame on someone rather than stepping back and looking at the details of a problem, deters the team from achieving the overall goal. Incident reports remain vital to the process of learning.” Rene continued to emphasis that by filling out incident reports individuals can analyze a situation or process and determine where the flaws or errors remain present. Without incident reports and learning from mistakes, growth remains difficult. Diana S. Contino (2011), author of “Leadership Competencies: Knowledge, Skills, and Aptitudes Nurses Need to Lead Organizations Effectively,” believes that organizational and

In nursing, leadership does not only consist of being in a higher position but in all aspects of nursing, whether one is a staff nurse or a unit manager. A nurse must be able to lead patients, family, or a community, to a higher level of understanding in regards to the over all aspects of people’s health. However, primary degrees in general do not prepare nurses for

Effective nurse leaders are often flexible and are able to change style of leadership to suit changing circumstances. They ensure that their people are regularly being challenged to grow and learn. Nurses show leadership by giving feedback and empowering others to bring out their best and the opportunity to grow. I believe that good leaders help people to see that what they do makes a difference. Nurse further their education to expand and gain knowledge so they can render excellent quality care that patients deserve. Also, the leaders would also help other nurses to work as a team to help the facility run to deliver high-quality care. A leader, “should think and talk about future trends that will affect the team's work, and make sure you communicate your vision to your team regularly” (Pearce, 2007, p. 25). I vision a leader as someone who can move others in achieving their goals and mission. For instance, our nurse supervisor addresses the

From reading multiple articles, I came across how important being a nurse leader and teacher is. In order to be a leader, the nurse must continue with skills learned and attend trainings to implement the new skills and pass the information onto other team members. Attending these training session is crucial in making sure the patient is as safe as possible and accurate evidence based practice is being applied. Haidar explains that in order to be successful as a leader, you must familiarize yourself with the principles of teaching. This includes educating why the information is important, how a nurse can relate the data to everyday practice, encouraging the trainee to learn, and helping the learners overcome previous behaviors to perceive a different outcome (Haidar,

Specifically, the nurse leader will acquire the ability to facilitate change, advance a culture of excellence, promote lifelong learning for self and others, foster collaborative multi-disciplinary care teams, design advanced nursing practices, assimilate services across the healthcare organization, and implement evidence into practice (AACN, 2011). These leadership skills are learned and demonstrated through AACN’s (2011) following nine essentials during master’s-level nursing education.

A leader does not simply have a basic definition, but instead, can be described in various ways that have various roles. According to the author Bessie Marquis, in the book, “Leadership roles and Management Functions in Nursing”, in simpler terms, a leader is the inspiration and director of the action. A leader has various roles such as making decisions, acting as a communicator, evaluator, a mentor, a critical thinker, a teacher, a visionary, and many more of which can make up a leader. In order to have leadership qualities, a person would need to have great communication skills as well as critical thinking skills. It is important in the

For the place of employment in question, it is clear that nursing leadership is needed. To that end, there must be a program set out to ensure that nurses are getting the leadership skills they need. The purpose of this program will not only provide nurses with the skills they need, but will better prepare them to be leaders for nurses who are new and just coming into the facility. All nurses who are part of the facility and nurses that will be hired by the facility in the future can benefit from this program, because leadership has great advantages for nurses (D'Antonio, 2010). When nurses also focus on leadership, they are able to provide management functions like decision-making and governance. This gives nurses extra skills and teaches them to manage facilities and help make things better for the nurses as a whole (Judd, 2009). Often, when nurses need something from management that can make their jobs significantly better and improve their ability to care for their patients, they are unsure how to ask for what they need. Leadership skills can help them with that issue.

Every person who enters the field of education has both the opportunity and an obligation to be a leader (Dufour, Marzano, 2011). Leadership defined by Owen (2002) is, “A journey of discovery. It is the expression of a person at his or her best whose aim is to transform something for the better and to develop this potential in others. It is not a solitary pursuit but one that harnesses the energy of those around you. Leadership is a process in which leaders and followers engage to achieve mutual goals. Prentice (2004) defines leadership as the accomplishment of a goal through the direction of human assistants. A great leader is one who can do so day after day, and year after year, in a wide variety of circumstances.

Having strong leadership sets the stage for nurse development; starts in the clinical learning environment during your nursing program, with your preceptor. During one of my medical-surgical rotations in nursing school, my preceptor gave me three patients. Meanwhile, my classmates had only two patients. All three of my patients had numerous IV medications. My preceptor new that, IV administration was my nemesis. I had to decide if I was going to sink or swim. I decided that I was going to go for the gold. My preceptor gave me the autonomy to make decisions, but, if she felt that I was making an unsafe decision. She would lead me in the correct direction, by asking me questions. Making me think critically about the situation. Helped me see the

Leadership is shown in many different ways depending on the leadership style one portrays. Nursing clinical leaders also not only have to know how to adequately lead a team, but have the knowledge and skills to do so. I chose an article called Clinical Leadership: A Call to Action that spoke about the essential knowledge and clinical skills that are needed to assume a leadership position. In this paper I am going to summarize the article and then give examples of how I plan to gain and use this information when I assume a leadership role as a nurse.

The path to nursing leadership most often progresses from novice to expert nurse and then onto a novice nurse manager. The novice nurse manager is asked to lead and rarely given the tools or knowledge to be successful in this new role. The Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition discussed by Patricia Benner includes the following five levels of competency in the clinical nurse (Benner, 1982):

It has been previously thought that leadership skills were innate, however on the contrary it is truly a learned skill that requires development to master. Nurses are the largest health care profession in Canada, and the majority are at the forefront of direct patient care. With that being said, their position and numbers in health care enables them to improve patient outcomes, transform the health care system, and to build individual and community capacities through the use of leadership. By developing and acquiring leadership skills through experiences, training, and education, nurses are capable of facilitating such. This paper aims to explore how I have displayed leadership in my third year placement through analysis and literature

Nursing is a very complex career that at many times requires one to be a leader. Nurses can be leaders in formal roles and also on the unit during any given shift. Nursing is a career that truly tests the character and attributes of those who choose to enter this career. Leadership in nursing is vital in creating a successful environment for patients. According to Stichler (2006), “effective leadership is essential to transforming organizations into environments that are safe for both patients and staff” (p. 422). Therefore, it is vital that as new nurses start out his or her careers that they learn from great leaders who are already in the profession. There are several great leaders working in the field who have a plethora of

Those who learn to be instructional leaders acquire many characteristics that are beneficial to their schools and communities. The writer concurs that Instructional leaders exhibit a clear sense of direction for their schools and prioritize and focus attention on the things that really