The Qualities Of A Nurse Leader Essay

identify the educational preparation and role(s) of the clinical nurse leader (CNL) designation. Give an example of how the CNL influences direct patient care whether in a hospital or out in the community.

Nursing leaders are crucial to any nursing organization. They motivate, empower, influence, and communicate the organization’s vision to create change within the organization. Great nursing leadership depends on great nursing leaders. This paper will define nursing leadership and describe leadership characteristics. It will further depict the democratic style and transformational theory of nursing leadership. While exploring leadership in action, this paper will illustrate the aspects of nursing.

Leadership is all about having the right amount of heart and determination to help make a difference in someone’s life. It takes certain qualities to be considered a good leader. A leader should want to help inspire others to make a change and to be the best that they can be. A true leader does not need to feel powerful, instead they empower those around them. Throughout my life I have come across various leaders who have made an impact on my life. It takes a very special person to inspire and touch people’s lives. Leadership is so much deeper than having power and bossing people around.

No matter how great a nurse leader may be, every nurse leader has their strengths and weaknesses. My strengths include being compassionate, humble, and resilient. Whereas my biggest weakness as a leader is not having the appropriate skills to influence others to see things my way.

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.

In healthcare it is very important to have strong leaders, especially in the nursing profession. A nurse leader typically uses several styles of leadership depending on the situation presented; this is known as situational leadership. It is important that the professional nurse choose the right style of leadership for any given situation to ensure their employees are performing at their highest potential. Depending on which leadership style a nurse leader uses, it can affect staff retention and the morale of the employees as well as nurse job satisfaction (Azaare & Gross, 2011.) “Nursing leaders have the responsibility to create and maintain a work environment which not only promotes positive patient outcomes but also

Once these qualities are achieved that organization’s outcomes are superior. The intended audience is for nurse managers and those in leadership positions to help them identify their particular skill set and enhance their management qualities for most effective outcomes. This article is relevant because it allows for accurate public perceptions of people’s skill sets as leaders in nursing. The strength of the article is the clear and concise language used as well as the incorporation of figure 1 chart. The chart allows the reader to differentiate between the styles of leading and it’s effect on organizational outcomes.

Leadership occurs when an individual is able to affect the behaviour or actions of others without having to make threats or use violence to implement changes (Ellis & Abbott, 2013). Nursing leadership involves all roles and aspects of nursing practice. It revolves around the ability to use critical thinking related to patient care, act upon those decisions and advocate for change whenever necessary. Nursing leadership has an important role in the lives of nurses’, influences the entire health care systems and the delivery of care (Canadian Nurses Association, 2009). Values and beliefs are what form and guide an individual’s thought processes and actions in everyday life. Being open, honest and sensitive are my values that guide my behaviour in my everyday life. I value openness because it allows me to feel comfortable to express my feelings and ideas. This value became important to me in my previous clinical setting. I was always afraid to openly inform my clinical instructor about whenever I did not agrees with changes that were being made on the unit. I was always scared that if I did voice my opinion and she did not agree with me, it would lead to failure of clinical. Honesty and being sensitive to one’s emotions is a value I believe are important. This value is imperative because the truth is known, but at the same time, it allows for one to be aware of individual feelings in relation to how to deliver this truth. This creates the knowledge of which tone of voice to use

Motivating- empowers others to perform at their best, promotes a sense of responsibility, encourages and assists other to excel in their profession

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.

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 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.

The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) helped me to develop leadership skills in my nursing practice by utilizing the integration of nursing science, theories, and concepts with knowledge from ethics, the biophysical, psychosocial, analytical, and organizational sciences as the basis for the highest level of nursing practice. At the start of the DNP program, I was a clinical bedside nurse with limited skills as a nurse educator and leadership, now I feel I have achieved mastery in developing leadership skills as well as increased confidence in the use of evidence-based practice and research. Examples of critical events that have stimulated my growth in the program include the DNP project plan and the workshop implementation.

Leadership and management are similar; however, have different definitions. Some leaders have an innate ability to learn whereas others may have to learn how to lead. A manager may not be an effective leader. A leader must possess certain characteristics to be effective. Communication, fairness, and leadership knowledge are the top three characteristics of an effective leader.