What does ” Nursing Leadership” mean to you, and how did the meaning change (or stay the same) after viewing the Module content?
Before I read the content of this module I used to believe that a good nurse leader was the one who knew to how to delegate and made sure the objective were obtained. Also, a good leader had to inspire and provide respect to others. they are many kind of leaders, and they could or not share several characteristics at the time. After reading the content I realized that Nursing Leadership is a growing concern not only for nurses but for the whole health care team and general community. The Institute Of Medicine (IOM) made a strong call for all nurses to become active leaders. Before reading the material for the module I was not familiar with the recommendations for nurses made by the IOM. This institution suggested that all nurses should practice to the full extent of their training, achieve higher levels of education, transform health care and improve research and information systems. Nursing Leadership is a necessity to become an active movement that helps reduce the cost of healthcare and maintain quality patient care. My concept of Nursing Leadership meaning stays the same.
Describe the Leadership behaviors you have observed in yourself and/or colleagues. Could a behavior be modified to create a more effective leadership strategy?
The leader characteristics I possess are good communication skills, trust, and caring. Leadership is more than the capacity to influence others. I believe in order to be an effective leader I have to be self confident and caring. I like to work together with my team as equals since we all are educated health care providers. Our common end objective is to provide excellent patient care. A good leader has to be open to team suggestions as long as it helps improve the patient care. Leadership is a learning process that always can be improved. It is imperative that managers learn to be good leaders. Not all managers are good leaders, and many times nurses leaders have no authority to make changes. Nursing is focusing on creating good nurses leaders to help in the transformations of our changing health system. Leadership behaviors could be modified depending on the situation, using models that respond to all followers and the unique environment. Leaders could use different frameworks to motivate followers in order to attain a specific goal.
References:
Fitzpatrick, J. & Glazer, G. (2013). Nursing leadership from the outside in. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
Rigolosi, E. (2005). Management and leadership in nursing and health care: An experimental approach, 2nd Ed. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
I like the way you mentioned that “nursing leadership is a movement”. I agree with you, it is a movement that has been getting stronger over the last few years. I think the push for nurses to educate themselves further (requiring a BSN) has helped in the move toward stronger leadership stances. Strong nursing leadership is important in gaining respect from other providers of healthcare, whether that be on a unit or in the political field of nursing.
As we see, nurses today are expected to perform more duties. Well said when you mentioned that the political field of nursing has to become more active, this is one way for our voices to be heard.