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.