Growing as a Nurse Leader

If you want something done right you have to do it yourself! I must admit I have lived by this motto far too long. Although I'm not a perfectionist, I have always thought that no one could do exactly what I want done and how I want it done. No I'm not OCD either. I've just always felt that it would be easier and quicker for me to do a task rather than taking the time to explain it to someone else. Obviously I'm not a good delegator. What I have learned is that I can't always be everywhere and I can't do everything. Being a leader requires alot of responsibility making it impossible to do everything alone. I realized that if I do take the time out to explain or teach someone how to do something they will be more useful to me and my team in the future. This is a skill I would like to develop so that I can be an effective leader and make the best use of my resources. Incorporating the five rights of delegation as outlined by Huber will be a helpful guide for me to follow.I will need to be familiar with the skills and capabilities of the staff to help me select the right person for the task. Developing a trusting relationship with staff and the use of effective communication skills will be an essential component to becoming an effective delegator

I love the profession of nursing. I'm truly a nurse at heart. I must admit after twenty years of ER nursing I felt the need to move forward. Not only a need but also a calling to treat patients at a different level. The great thing about my profession is that it allows me to grow in a field that I desire. I Have made the commitment to become a nurse practitioner. That transition will involve becoming familiar with things that might have not been as important to me as a staff nurse. With a little push and encouragement, I will be following blogs and website that will help me explore this new world of advanced practice.

One of the websites I have chosen to follow is Agency for Health care Research & Quality http://www.ahrq.gov/. Skimming through the website I felt that it would be a good source of information to keep me abreast of the latest research, health care policy, clinical treatments plans, patient safety and quality care, and much more. I believe that part of the responsibility of an advanced practice nurse is to stay informed on current data regarding are clients and practice.

I have also chosen to follow all nurses.com http://allnurses.com/and the nurse practitioner website http://www.npplace.com/ To help me explore this subculture with in nursing.

Health care policy and market place review http://healthpolicyandmarket.blogspot.com/is a blog I will follow to obtain information and opinions regarding health care policy.

The NP's place http://arnp.blogspot.com/ is a blog I will follow to obtain input and share ideas with other NP.

Having been a nurse for 20 years I've learned what an important role leadership plays in our practice. In retrospect, I must say I was quite disappointed at the leadership I saw in the senior nurses when I was a rookie nurse. I remember this saying just out of nursing school "nurses eat their young". Much to my disappointment I learned all too soon what that meant. It meant that your first assignment/ job would either make you or break you and that no one would be around to lend a helping hand. In fact, some would actually expect you to fail. For those who didn't survive, well they would eventually find a new job or specialty. No wonder we've had a shortage for so many years. If you survived you were taken in by the group but you certainly had to prove yourself over time, as if surviving nursing school and passing the boards wasn't enough. I kind of initiation with a tough love attitude I guess. The problem with this behavior is that it did nothing to bridge our past with our future. Senior nurses were certainly not being good role models or setting an of example of good leadership behavior. This type of behavior did not allow for collaboration or team work. It did nothing to appreciate or recognize the contributions of the new nurses who, whether they agreed or not, were part of the team.

To be an effective leader one must possess certain qualities or behaviors that encourage team work, strengthens the team, motivates team players, and sets a good example for the team members to emulate. What the senior nurses didn't see is that everyone would benefit from the unity of a strong team. Nursing is multi-dimensional and multi-faceted calling for different forms of leadership styles. Because we must work in collaboration most of the times the democratic style is commonly used. For this type of leadership style to work you must have confident team players who are willing state their opinions and concerns. Their input must also be meet with respected. We all hold different experiences that allow us to share some expert advice and to bounce ideas off of each other. Empowering are team players may also prove beneficial when the time comes to stand up to the physician and be the patient advocate that we vowed to be.

I think and hope that things have since changed and that nursing as a whole has developed their leadership skills and learned to value their team members. I believe that we have learned to share our vision with our new recruits. I think we have learned to value are colleagues and that by taking them under our wings we can empower them and improve the profession of nursing as a whole, for they are our future! A work in progress of course, but I hope that my view is an accurate one and not just a biased opinion from a "senior nurse". Could it be that I have learned this lesson after so many years of nursing or that the profession has truly changed their views? For the good of the nursing profession I hope the latter.